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THE CHRISTIAN WITNESS COMPANY 
CHICAGO AND BOSTON 



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COPYRIGHT 1911 

By 

THE CHRISTIAN WITNESS CO. 



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A FOREWORD. 

Since many of my friends have expressed a de- 
sire that I put my printed sermons and articles into 
permanent book form, I have consented so to do; 
and launch this book with humble prayer, and with 
the hope that it may inspire its readers to a higher 
and holier life ; and that the Holy Spirit may bless 
it on its mission of love, we send it forth into the 
world, asking all who may read it to pass it on and 
pray God to bless the good and overrule all mis- 
takes. Yours in holy love, 

E. A. Fergerson. 



INTRODUCTION 

An introduction is the act of bringing together 
two parties through the medium of a mutual 
friend or acquaintance. A proper introduction 
brings to acquaintanceship two parties hitherto 
unknown, who are worthy of mutual acquaintance. 

We are glad to bring the public and the author 
of this book into an acquaintance which we are 
sure will be worthy. It will bless the public and 
will call to their attention one who has been greatly 
used in the work of the Lord all over the United 
States. We know those who read this book will 
be grateful for what we may say. 

The author is a self made man. It is quite an 
undertaking for a man to leave the locomotive and 
go into the evangelistic work and make a success 
of it. It is quite a marked contrast between guid- 
ing a locomotive over the plains and through the 
valleys and taking charge of a train on the Gospel 
Railroad; from the shriek of the whistle to the 
shouts of new born souls in great campaigns for 
God. It is quite remarkable to find a young man 



6 Introduction 

who is willing to exchange the locomotive throttle 
for the Greek lexicon and grammar. This evan- 
gelist not only went into the field but he took his 
books with him and has educated himself in the 
Greek language sufficiently well to read with 
fluency and also critically his Greek Testament. 
His literary studies have also made him proficient 
in the English language as well as in the doctrines 
of the Bible. No wonder the people have asked 
for these sermons which have wrought such con- 
viction as to bring men to the altar by the scores. 

There is a freshness about these discourses 
which shows that the author has his own marked 
peculiarities and does not tread in the paths worn 
by other feet, as far as talent is concerned. 

The book will be found very interesting and ap- 
petizing. His descriptions show him an adept in 
rhetoric. 

The wide range of topics will be sure to make 
the book attractive to all classes. The great sin 
question and the greater salvation question are 
clearly and freshly stated. We are doing the public 
a favor in recommending the book. 

G. A. McLaughlin. 



CONTENTS 

Reminiscence 9 

Our "High Calling" in God. Phil. III-14 14 

The Real Issue 22 

Cleansing and Growing 26 

"Look Unto Me." 29 

"For None of us Liveth unto Himself." Rom. XIV-7. . 39 

Our Coming King 42 

The Liberal Soul shall be made Fat 50 

The New Birth 54 

Healing by the Great Physician . . . . : 65 

The Baptism of the Holy Spirit and Fire 69 

The Seventh Chapter of Romans 74 

Heart Purity 86 

Serving God and Holiness 96 

Hindrances to Prayer 106 

What is Man? 116 

What He is to Us 118 

The Way Christians Live 120 

Scenes Along the Way 121 

Nature's Revelation 125 

Temptation 128 

The Tragedy of the Cross 130 

A Merry Heart 147 

A Popular Error Corrected 150 

Pointed Paragraphs 154 

A Swarm of Bees 156 

The Sinfulness of Sin 159 

7 



8 Contents 

Some Facts about Hell 162 

Hell 169 

Winter's Coming On 173 

The Judgment 175 

He That Hath Wrought Us 180 

Heart Life 181 

Some Characteristics of God's Holy People 182 

A Hidden People 208 

A Delivered People 213 

A Free People 217 

A Flourishing People 218 

"Abstain from all Appearance of Evil" 221 

Victory over Death 223 

Christmas Eve 22$ 

Life's Brief Day 226 

Sanctification a Second Work of Grace 227 

The Presence and Pollution of Sin 230 

Some Reasons for our Sanctification 233 

Reverie of a Lost Soul 241 

Another Gospel 243 

Christ's Second Coming 246 

The Ministry of Solitude 249 

The Spirit of Early Methodism, Historical and 

Biographical 252 

They All began to make Excuses 260 

Eternity is Hell 264 

Genuine vs. Spurious Revivals 267 

Pointed Paragraphs. ., 270 



STREAMS FROM LEBANON 



REMINISCENCE. 

At home on the old farm where I was raised, I 
walk in the solitude of the lonely woods and tread 
again the winding school path that we children trod 
in our childhood days. 

How the memories crowd in upon me ! In sweet 
reverie I lose sight of the present and I am a boy 
again on the farm. As the sun sets and the twilight 
comes on I hear my mother call, and I go for the 
cows. I hear the plaintive call of the "Bob white" 
from the field, the bark of the squirrel from the 
woods; I see the chipmunk as he scampers along 
the ground rail of the crooked fence ahead of me 
and hurries on out of sight. The cows wait around 
the bars, patiently chewing their cuds. Slowly and 
gently they take their turn out over the two lower 
bars and wend their way to the barn. 

Again I hear my mother singing, as she comes 

9 



10 Streams from Lebanon 

from the house to the milking place ; the calves, the 
milk vessels, the barking of the dog, the cricket 
song, the katy-dids' chorus, the weird monotonous 
din of the locust, all combined to make music and 
sweet harmony that lives in one's memory forever. 

I see again my father as he comes from the field 
with the tired and weary horses at the close of the 
day's work. 

"Chores" and feeding done, supper over, bed 
time comes and my father reaches for the Bible, 
reads a chapter and we all kneel down and pray. 
Soon sweet sleep kisses away the cares and toils of 
the day and on nature's bosom we rest and enjoy 
that peace which God alone can give through na- 
ture's solitude, to him who lives by the sweat of his 
brow. 

Ah me ! Sweet memories. Show me the boy who 
could not lead you to the biggest watermelon in the 
patch, the best apple tree in the old orchard, the best 
swimming-hole along the branch, or to the wild 
grape tree in the tangled woods ! Where is the boy 
that did not know where every hen's nest on the 
place could be found, that did not drink at the 
spring, that did not have a stone bruise on his heel 
or a rag string around his big toe? Show me the 



Streams from Lebanon n 

boy who does not recall the sensations he experienced 
when he was running from a bumble bee's nest. 
The boy who has missed all of this has lost whole 
chapters in the book that goes to make up life. 

Old Salem church in the woods, and the school- 
house hard by, with its dingy seats, carved by our 
jack knives ; the old house where we were born, my 
Uncle John's house over the hill, the old foot log 
across the big branch, the heavy timber on the east 
and north with Uncle Sam Jones' meadow on the 
west, stretching out to the great prairie on the south, 
all stand before me as it were but yesterday. There 
was old Grandfather Bullock, the old Methodist 
class leader, who was the first man that I ever heard 
shout. Leaning on his cane with trembling hand 
and unsteady carriage, clothed in his home-made 
suit of jeans, his shirt collar opened in front, the 
power of God on him in exhortation, until the old 
people would cry and shout. Then there was my 
own grandfather Fergerson, on my father's side, 
shouting, praying and exhorting, until he could be 
heard for half a mile away. These two pioneers 
were known all up and down our part of the country 
and their names were household words in the com- 
munity and synonyms of everything good. 



12 Streams from Lebanon 

Well, they have passed on to the glory world. The 
old house where I was born has been torn down for 
some years and only the spot now remains where it 
stood. The old foot-log that spanned the stream 
has been removed ; my uncle John has built a new 
house upon the main road and has left the old one 
and it will soon be gone from view. The old school- 
house still stands, though remodeled and changed. 
The old church stands like a solemn sentinel point- 
ing to God and eternity. As I approach it and sit 
down to reflect, I see the wagons and horses, the 
congregation, the solemn preacher as he stood in 
the pulpit dealing faithfully God's Word to the 
people. As I look over the neighborhood in those 
days, there were the Jones, the Bullocks, the Aliens, 
the Pipers, the Brims, the Blairs, Douthets, Watsons, 
Colemans, Whites, Wilbers, Rutherfords, Plum- 
mers and many others too numerous to mention. 
Many of them have passed on to the other world, 
while others are scattered and gone, and only a few 
remain, who will, before many years, pass over to 
the other side. From old Salem graveyard on that 
glorious morning, many bodies will rise and shake 
off the dust and go up to live with God forever. 
But they are not all there. Many shall come from 



Streams from Lebanon 13 

the north and from the south, and from the east 
and from the west, and sit down in the kingdom. 
Then, sad to say, others will not be able. 

Of the few remaining in the immediate neighbor- 
hood, are my father and mother, uncle John and 
aunt Rose Fergerson, uncle Sam and aunt Annie 
Jones, brother Jim and William Piper, William 
Coleman, and a few others with their families. 
Time is flying and soon we will all be gone. God 
help us to so live that we may all have a part in that 
great and final reunion beyond the skies. 



OUR "HIGH CALLING" IN GOD. PHIL. III-14. 

In 2d Tim. 1-9 we find that we are "called with 
a holy calling." This is indeed a high calling; for 
when we are holy we are like God, for God is holy. 
Lev. 19-2. 

The greatest incentive in the whole range of 
Scriptures, to be holy, is the fact that God Himself 
IS HOLY. 

If we are to live with Him through eternity in 
His holy habitation (heaven), we must of necessity 
BE HOLY, for to be otherwise in His presence 
would be hell to that soul. Since we are called with 
a heavenly calling (Heb. 3-1) (to heaven), we 
should be diligent to make our calling sure (2d Pet. 
1-10) and see that we have the FITNESS to live 
with God in His holy habitation. Holiness is the 
necessary preparation for heaven. Hence, when God 
says, "Prepare to meet thy God," he not only means 
for the sinner to repent and turn from his sins but 
He also means for the Christian to seek that "holi- 
ness without which no man shall see the Lord." 
Heb. 12-14. 

14 



Streams from Lebanon 15 

Since God has "COMMANDED" us to be holy 
(1st Pet. 1-15), and hath "CHOSEN" us to be holy 
(Eph. 1-4), and given us a specific "PROMISE" 
that we could have it and live it "ALL THE DAYS 
OF OUR LIFE" (Luke 1 72-75), it looks as though 
we who claim to be His children, should have some 
interest in it, does it not ? 

Let us notice a few of the ways in which this call- 
ing is a high calling. 1. God calls us unto HIM- 
SELF: 

"For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy 
God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a 
special people unto Himself, above all people that 
are upon the face of the earth. 

"The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor 
choose you, because ye were more in number than 
any people ; for ye were the fewest of all people." 
— Deut. 7-6, 7. 

In this sixth verse He says we are holy unto Him 
and He has chosen or rather called us a special 
people unto HIMSELF. Not only that, but He 
says we are ABOVE all people of the earth. That 
does not mean in an independent, egotistical sense 
as though we felt our superiority over other people ; 
but rather this life of true holiness humbles the soul, 



16 Streams from Lebanon 

and in lowliness of mind we "esteem others better 
than ourselves." Phil. 2:3. 

God would have us understand that He calls our 
minds and hearts away from even the good things 
of this world unto HIMSELF. Unconsciously we 
are taken up with things rather than with HIM. 
God wants us to love HIM for the sake of Himself. 
God is affectionate, and loving, and wants to be 
loved. 

I have gone home before now and spread the 
candies and little gifts out before my children, and 
for the moment they were taken up with them, but 
soon they were in my lap with their arms around 
my neck loving me; and when reminded of the pres- 
ents I had given them they would say: "We can 
get candy when you are gone, but Papa we are so 
glad you come, and we would rather have you than 
all the gifts." That is the way our Heavenly Father 
wants us to treat Him. Some people are so much 
taken up with the work of the Lord, and His gifts 
that they forget to worship Him. Heart holiness 
lifts the heart above everything else and sees God. 
Isa. 45 :22. 

There can be no higher calling than unto God 
Himself. It puts the soul where it walks with God 



Streams from Lebanon iy 

as Enoch did. And as Abraham walked with God 
and was a stranger on earth, so it will separate you 
from the world until you will wear it as a loose gar- 
ment ready any time as Elijah did, to step into the 
chariot and be off for your permanent home. 

This life lifts one above the world, until secret 
prayer and walks with God in nature's lonely soli- 
tude, is sweeter than any other thing in this world. 
It holds the life so far above the tinsel and tawdry 
of this old world that "There's no thirsting for life's 
pleasures, nor adorning rich and gay ; for I've found 
a richer treasurer, one that fadeth not away." In 
other words it lifts the soul so high above the things 
of the world, that its magnetism and loadstone has 
no perceptible effect on it whatever. 

When we think of being called to God Himself, 
we immediately think of being conducted into His 
presence. What preparations we would make, and 
how interested we would be if we knew that we 
were to be introduced into the presence of some king 
or some other great personage of earth. We would 
want to be properly dressed, and have a familiarity 
with the rules of etiquette, and the usages of society, 
until we would be quite free and unembarrassed in 
their presence. 



18 Streams from Lebanon 

How vast and greater the importance of being 
ready to be ushered into the presence of the King 
of kings when this life is ended ; and doubly so, since 
this earthly life may end at any moment ! 

Reader are YOU PREPARED now? Would 
you be perfectly free and unembarrassed in His 
august Presence were you brought before Him 
within the next few hours ? 

II. God hath called us in peace, ist Cor. 7:15. 
(R. V.) 

Holiness of heart gives us not only peace zvith 
God but it gives us the peace OF GOD. "Let the 
peace of God rule in your hearts." Col. 3:15. 

Not only do we have the peace of God, but we 
can "be at peace among ourselves." ist Thess. 5:13. 

"Great peace have they who love Thy law; and 
nothing shall offend them." Psalm 119:165. 

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind 
is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee." 
Isa. 26:3. 

"But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall 
delight themselves in the ABUNDANCE of 
PEACE." Psalm 37:11. 



Streams from Lebanon 19 

Holiness of heart puts one above the ordinary 
Christian and enables them to live peaceably with 
all men. What a blessing to be where the fluctua- 
ting things of earth do not mar nor disturb this 
peace. It passes all understanding (and all mis- 
understanding) and keeps our minds and hearts in 
Christ Jesus. Phil. 4 7. 

It lifts us up above this world until we look at 
things as God sees them and the petty annoyances 
that are everlastingly unsettling the ordinary run 
of folks around us, do not ruffle the sweet ocean of 
peace that God has given us. 

"I will extend peace to her like a river." Isa. 
66:12. 

"O, that thou hadst harkened to My command- 
ments ! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy 
righteousness been as the waves of the sea." Isa. 
48:18. 

Think for a moment of the river of peace that God 
gives the Sanctified soul! Think of a Mississippi 
turned down through the soul! If you were to 
throw a chunk, or a log of wood, or for that matter 
a house into it, it would float it off and go rolling 
on to the Gulf, just as if it had never happened. 



20 Streams from Lebanon 

Think of a river of peace in the soul that the devil 
cannot bank up, nor stop ! 

III. God calls us to Heaven. Heb. 3:1. 

What an honor to be called to a place where there 
is no sin, no broken hearts, no blasted lives and 
ruined homes. Where there is no sickness, nor 
pain or disease lurking in the air to be dreaded and 
shunned. 

Where the Lebanon hills and shining spires are 
lighted with the presence of the Lamb. 

The final abode of the saints, the home of the 
soul. What permanency and satisfaction will await 
the soul on every hand. Broken families will re- 
unite and friends gone long ago will greet us with 
glad hands. The martyrs and the prophets will be 
there. The apostles and preachers of all ages who 
have not betrayed their trust will be there. 

No more tired and weary bodies ; no more tears, 
for God will wipe all tears away. We will eat of 
the fruit of the tree of life, and behold the sea of 
glass mingled with fire, and drink of the river and 
fountain of life that flows from the throne of God 
forever. We will cast our crowns at His feet, and 
crown Him Lord of all. There His servants shall 



Streams from Lebanon 21 

serve Him, and they shall see His face; and His 
name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall 
be no night there ; and they need no candle, neither 
the light of the sun ; for the Lord God giveth them 
light and they shall reign forever. 



THE REAL ISSUE. 

We hear much in our day of being filled with the 
Spirit, anointed for service, and of meetings being 
conducted for the deepening of the spiritual life, etc., 
but when it comes to the sin question the fight 
centers around the fact of eradication, or in other 
words the removal of all sin from the human heart. 

This is what stirs the devil and carnality. If one 
wants to raise a storm just let him get up in a 
preacher's meeting, or at an annual conference, or 
any where else for that matter; and hold to the 
Bible teaching that Jesus came to "TAKE AWAY" 
the sin of the world, and to the teaching that entire 
sanctification DESTROYS the old man of sin and 
removes all sin from the heart, and the fire works 
begin right off. One may ask why such antago- 
nism? From the simple fact it strikes at the root 
of the matter, and cuts the nerve of hope to the 
teaching otherwise. The annihilation of sin, the 
uprooting of carnality is the great central truth that 
John the Baptist taught, when he said : "The axe is 
laid at the root of the tree." He was simply saying 

22 



Streams from Lebanon 23 

in other words, we will no longer clip the outer 
twigs and leaves with the nickel plated scissors of 
popular theology; but we will bring the old gospel 
grubbing-hoe that will dig up the tree, root and 
branch. 

All the fight against holiness, and against holiness 
meetings, that hold to the old Bible and Wesleyan 
doctrine of entire sanctification as a second work of 
grace wrought in the heart of the believer, sub- 
sequent to regeneration; really means in the final 
analysis, that the opponent does not believe in the 
extermination of sin, or that God is able and willing 
to remove all sin entirely from the soul and keep 
one in that condition. 

The book says, "He was manifested to TAKE 
AWAY our sins." And, "Behold the Lamb of 
God, that TAKETH AWAY the SIN of the world." 
For one to palliate this deep seated malady and 
doctor it from the outside, and to treat sin as though 
it was not an enormous, black, hideous, devilish 
thing ; and act as though it was some minor ailment 
that we would soon be well of (when the truth is, 
it is so deep seated and universal, and the whole 
constitution of the soul is so affected that unless we 
get rid of it, it will drag us down to hell) is criminal 



24 Streams from Lebanon 

in the sight of God, and treason against the govern- 
ment of high heaven. 

Reader you may be sure if Almighty God would 
not let sin stay in heaven, He will not let you enter 
with the thing in your heart. God hates sin. None 
but radical measures will ever get us rid of it. 
Humanity hates to be humbled, and carnality hates 
to be dislodged and removed. Just here is the reason 
why more people do not enter the experience. 

It means something for a preacher or a layman 
to go to the altar and humble their pride, and con- 
fess out their hearts to God and cry mightily to Him 
for the removal of the worst of all enemies out of 
their souls. 

It is a much easier job to take sides against this 
doctrine, play fast and loose with your convictions, 
and take the easy way of the world ; than it is to get 
up and confess to God and man that you have carnal- 
ity in your soul and go the way of the cross and get 
rid of it ; but this is the only hope. 

What would the world think, if when the "Yellow 
Jack" struck New Orleans or any of our Southern 
cities ; if great union assemblies and meetings were 
held and people were told they could not hope to get 
rid of the plague, but to "Suppress" it and keep it 



Streams from Lebanon 25 

checked somewhat (the best they could), as there 
was no remedy for it, and that it was useless to 
expect to get rid of it entirely ? 

As much sense in one as the other. 

The fact is, we have a remedy for sin ; "The blood 
of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from ALL 
sin. If not all, how much? "If the Son make you 
FREE you shall BE FREE indeed." 

To be free from anything means to be separated 
from it, to be out from under its influence, to get 
away from its very presence. That is what can be 
true in the heart of man concerning sin. Amen! 
On with the fight ! This is the war we are enlisted 
in. The extermination of sin. Here is where the 
Holiness movement proper, crosses swords with the 
present day Theology and teaching: "that we can't 
be rid of all sin in this life and that infants are born 
pure." We teach that infants are INNOCENT, 
but not PURE. And as the Bible teaches, we teach 
that all BELIEVERS can have a pure heart. Matt. 

5-8. 

This is teaching no more, no less, than the eradi- 
cation of all sin out of the heart. Reader, have you 
this experience? 



CLEANSING AND GROWING. 

To say that one cannot be cleansed from ALL sin 
is to say that sin is a constituent element or neces- 
sary quality of the soul. Wherever cleansing by 
the blood is spoken of in the Bible it invariably has 
to do with sin. But growth always has to do with 
grace. The sanctifying or cleansing of the soul is 
an act of God. Holiness is a state after an act. 
Growth follows naturally after we are sanctified, 
and obtains in a state of holiness ; natural, normal, 
and unobstructed. This follows naturally the order 
of nature. How can that grow which has never 
been planted? Cleansing involves the removal of 
that that hinders growth. The corn must be planted 
before it can grow ; but it can grow better after that 
is removed which would keep it from growing. 

Some teach that the scripture at Mark 4-28 "First 
the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the 
ear," when applied to the Christian life, means that 
we are to grow more and more into the likeness of 
Christ and that in the evening of life we will be 

26 



Streams from Lebanon 27 

matured Christians. The fatal mistake in this 
teaching is that First, one cannot grow INTO grace. 
We have to get in before we can grow. One can 
swim IN water but not INTO it. So with grace, 
one can grow IN grace but NEVER INTO it. 
Then in the second place, no amount of growing 
will cleanse the soul from sin. The mother does not 
tell her child to run along and grow clean. She 
WASHES it. So God does not tell His children to 
grow clean from sin; but He washes and cleanses 
them by the blood, and then they naturally grow. 

Growth has nothing to do with washing, cleans- 
ing, refining or purging; yet these have much to do 
with growth, as the soul cannot grow unobstructed 
as it should until all sin is removed. The scriptures 
nowhere teach that the gradual advance of the 
christian step by step is attended with a gradual 
cleansing of the heart until all sin is gone. Just 
as our inherited sin was derived from a person — 
Adam, so our cleansing must be derived from a 
person — Jesus Christ, our second Adam. Our 
remedy for sin is not what we do, but what God 
does for us and in us. 

Regeneration plants the corn in the soul, Sancti- 



28 Streams from Lebanon 

fication removes the weeds of sin, and growth fol- 
lows naturally, and the normal condition is to en- 
large and mature. Cleansing has to do with qual- 
ity, growth with quantity. 



"LOOK UNTO ME." 

(Sermon preached in the Tabernacle in Louis- 
ville, Ky., Saturday night, February 26, 1910.) 

You will find the text tonight in the forty-fifth 
chapter of Isaiah, twenty-second verse : "Look unto 
me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for 
I am God, and there is none else." 

There was a time when there was no world, nor 
was there any sun, nor moon, nor stars. There was 
a time when there was no earth, nor man, nor angel. 
In fact, all these things have been created. There 
was a time when God said, "Let there be light, and 
there was light." There was a time when he made 
this earth, this world, out of nothing. Since the 
creation of man, all down through the ages, God has 
been trying to teach this old world the lesson that 
there is none else beside Him. "The heavens de- 
clare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth 
His handiwork. . Day unto day utter eth speech, night 
unto night showeth knowledge." Astronomers tell 
us that the supposition is that the "Milky Way," 
seen in the heavens, is nothing more or less than one 

29 



30 Streams from Lebanon 

hundred and seventeen million suns swung into 
space, with their revolving solar systems. They 
also tell us that the sun is twelve hundred thousand 
times larger than our earth, or in other words, it 
would take one million and two hundred thousand 
worlds like ours to make one equal to the sun. They 
also say that Jupiter is 1,260 times as large as the 
earth. If God can hang the sun in the heavens, and 
the stars upon nothing, and ''measure the waters 
in the hollow of His hand," and "mete out the heaven 
with a span," and "comprehend the dust of the 
earth in a measure," and "weigh the mountains in 
scales, and the hills in a balance," and "cover Him- 
self with light as with a garment," and "stretch 
out the heavens like a curtain," lay "the beams of 
His chambers in the waters," and make "the clouds 
His chariot," and "walk on the wings of the wind ;" 
if He can do all this, He surely can teach us this 
lesson, that there is none else but Him. 

He made these bodies of ours, with the three 
hundred and fifty movements known to the me- 
chanical world, in which are found all the bars, 
levers, joints, pulleys, pumps and pipes, wheels and 
axles, ball-bearing and socket movements, beams, 
buffers, arches, cables and supports of all designs. 



Streams from Lebanon 31 

The heart is a stationary engine ; the lungs, a work- 
ing bellows for sanitary ventilation; the brain a 
condenser; the skin, an evaporator, and the eye is 
a camera, self-focusing, self-loading, and self-de- 
veloping, taking millions of pictures every day in 
colors, and enlarging to life size; tireless, unceas- 
ing, self-winding, running, in some cases, for more 
than seventy years. He has given us a superior 
intelligence, and spiritual nature above the animal 
kingdom ; and when we begin to talk of the infinite 
God and His omnipotence, then we begin to see 
how little man is, and we begin to understand that 
there is none else but Him. Now let us notice how 
He teaches the world this lesson. 

First, He teaches it to false gods. Where are 
the false gods o^ Ninevah that the people worshiped 
ages ago ? The answer is, "They are gone forever." 
Where are the gods of Corinth? of Greece? of 
Rome? These false gods have had their day, and 
are not worshiped tonight ; but our God is greater 
tonight than He has ever been to us in this world. 

Then again He teaches this lesson to empires. 
Where is the glory of Babylon that for years stood 
in her majesty and great glory, towering above 
every other city in the world? If you could go 



32 Streams from Lebanon 

there tonight and ask the owls and the bats where 
her former glory is, they would answer, "Gone 
forever." But our God still lives. Where is the 
glory of the Roman empire? It is gone. Likewise 
that of Ninevah and Carthage. Carthage, with her 
shining spires and cathedral domes, washed by the 
Athenian Sea, has crumbled, and her glory departed, 
and God says to Carthage, "There is none else but 
Me!' 

He not only teaches it to empires, but he teaches 
it to monarchs. Nebuchadnezzar had reached the 
highest round on the ladder of fame. God put 
him in the fields, on his hands and knees, where his 
hair grew out like eagle feathers, and his nails like 
hawk claws. And now I ask again, "Where is 
Nebuchadnezzar?" Echo — "He is gone." Take, 
for instance, Alexander the Great, or Napoleon 
Bonaparte. After these mighty warriors had con- 
quered the world, and wished for other worlds to 
conquer, blazing in the very zenith of their glory, 
there came a turning point when it began to wane, 
and their sun has set, and very few know anything 
about the year in which they were born or died, or 
where they were buried. Herod the Great, after 
he made a great oration, and was receiving com- 



Streams from Lebanon 33 

placently the adulation of the people of Tyre and 
Sidon, was smitten by an angel of the Lord, and 
the worms ate him up. And where is his glory? 
It is gone. While the glory of these great men 
have waned and gone into total eclipse, the glory 
of some of their contemporaries shines brighter to- 
day than ever before ; and like Pike's Peak, that lifts 
its head above the rugged range, to the traveler, 
grown in majesty and greatness, as he goes from 
it, so the lives of some of God's people stand out 
tonight like the rocks on the promontory of time. 

God also teaches this lesson that there is none 
else beside Him, to the wise men of this world. He 
has taught this lesson to Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, 
Solon, Bacon, Paulus, Renan, Strauss, Voltaire, 
Gibbon, Chesterfield, Tom Paine, Ingersoll, and 
many others of less note whom I might mention, 
that are scattered up and down through the ages. 
Take, for instance, the splendid reasoning in Higher 
Criticism of Paulus. It soon surrendered to the 
more critical Strauss. His mythical teaching in 
turn was destroyed by the aesthetic Renan. The 
legendary theory of Renan has fallen to pieces of 
its own inconsistencies. Baur Hilgenfield and 
Schwegler went forth like miners with pick, axe 



34 Streams from Lebanon 

and powder to subvert Christianity, but they only 
disclosed the Gibraltar of its mighty strength. Vol- 
taire said that he lived in the twilight of Christianity. 
That was true. But it was the morning and not the 
evening twilight. The sun of Christianity had not 
fully risen. But Voltaire, with his puny theories, 
has sunk into the night of the past, and is not 
thought of, except when somebody runs across some 
of his old books in some second-hand bookstore, 
covered with dust. He boasted that he would over- 
throw, with one hand, what it took twelve apostles 
to build up in a lifetime. But today the press that 
he used to print his blasphemies is used in printing 
Bibles; and the house in which he lived is packed 
with Bibles from garret to cellar, as a depot for the 
Bible Society. Gibbon labored earnestly to over- 
throw Christianity, yet today Gibbon's hotel at Lake 
Leman contains a room where Bibles are sold. 
Chesterfield's parlor, formerly an infidel club-room, 
echoing with profanity and raillery at the Christian 
religion, is now a vestry where the groans and 
prayers of the penitent go up to God. People in 
this world have almost forgotten that Tom Paine 
ever lived, and that he died in the year 1809. He 
thought he had demolished the Bible, but after he 



Streams from Lebanon 35 

died it took such a leap that in the year 1900 over 
ten million copies were sold. It is now printed in 
more than 325 different languages. Poor old Bob 
Ingersoll, with his splendid flow of oratory, drummed 
up a few folks to follow him for a while, who 
coughed themselves through this world like a set of 
consumptives, and now, once in a while, some little 
insignificant person can be found who still believes 
in poor old Bob. Now, the query, "Where is the 
former glory of the above mentioned man ?" Echo 
answers "Gone." But our God, and His Christ, 
and our salvation were never greater than today. 
People may poke fun at us for shouting, but we 
have something to shout over ; and it is going to last 
forever, and with the coming ages, its luster will 
never fade. False gods, empires, monarchs, and 
the wise people of this world are brought down, 
laid low, and forgotten. Our God marches on ; for 
"there is none else beside Him." 

He teaches this lesson also to false religions. 
Mohammedanism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Uni- 
versalism, Spiritualism, Christian Science, Russell- 
ism, Swedenborg doctrine, Telepathy, Mind Science, 
Odyllic Force, the Black Arts, and all sorts of 
legerdemain. These false religions can no more 



36 Streams from Lebanon 

stand before the eternal truth of God than frost 
can stand before the blazing summer sun. God, 
through the ages, has taught, and is now teaching, 
these false religions of this world, that there is 
none else but Him. 

The next thing I wish to call your attention to is 
those He proposes to save — "All the ends of the 
earth." Our salvation is not sectional, but univer- 
sal. It is not for some particular church only, or 
select crowd, but for all the earth. Now He is 
trying to reveal Himself to this lost world. When 
Hector, the great soldier, was entering one of his 
famous battles, he rode up on his spirited charger 
to his front gate, and dismounted to give his wife 
and baby good-bye. But being decked in his armor 
and coated mail, his boy drew back. He did not 
know him. Instantly the great soldier withdrew 
and removed his armor. That revealed him to his 
son, and his little boy ran with open arms into his 
embrace. He needed a revelation. That is what 
God is trying to do to this world — give us a revela- 
tion of Himself. A boy who was born blind, after 
he had reached the age of fifteen years, was told 
by a specialist that his sight could be restored by 
an operation, after which the light was tempered to 



Streams from Lebanon 37 

him gradually. One day he was taken out under 
the open sky, and his eyes opened wide to all nature 
around him. Immediately he threw up his hands 
and cried to his mother, "Why did you not tell me 
this world was so beautiful ?" Upon this the mother 
answered, "My son, I have been trying to tell you 
all these years." So we will never see the beauty of 
our great salvation until it is revealed to us by the 
Holy Spirit. While nature around us is a com- 
mentary on the handiwork of God and His great 
power and omnipotence, yet it could never reveal 
such things as mercy, redemption or immortality. 
Hence God had to send His own Son into this world 
as a revelation. In fact, the best that man could do, 
or did do without God, has always been a failure. 
While Socrates taught a high standard of morality, 
yet he died in the grossest immorality. Plato even 
taught that it was honorable to lie. Cicero com- 
mitted suicide. With these great men, as leaders, 
to end as they did, what could we expect of the com- 
mon populace? So you see, friends, this world 
needed a revelation of God. That is why Paul prays 
in Ephesians, "The eyes of your understanding being 
enlightened, and that he may give you the spirit of 
revelation in the knozvledge of him."' What the eye 



38 Streams from Lebanon 

is to the body, the understanding is to the soul. 
Now as the eye is not light itself and can discern 
nothing but by means of light, shining not only on 
objects to be photographed, but into the eye itself, 
so the understanding of man can discern no secret 
thing by itself, but sees by the things of God's Holy 
Spirit. In other words, God must reveal himself to 
the soul. 

The last thought, my friends, is, "How does God 
teach us to be saved ?" The simplest religion in the 
world, "Look unto Me, and be ye saved." Not to 
the priest, not to yourself, not to your feelings ; but 
"Look unto ME, and be ye saved" My brother, 
there is life for a look. The millionaire, the pauper, 
the bard, the sage, the king, the queen, the peasant, 
the educated, and the illiterate ; in fact, all the ends 
of the earth may be saved. He saves not only from 
the guilt of sin, but from the power of sin, and from 
the presence of sin. In fact, he saves to the utter- 
most all that will come unto him. 



"FOR NONE OF US LIVETH UNTO HIM- 
SELF."— Rom. xiv, 7. 

We either blight or bless everything we touch. 
Every person has an influence for good or evil. 
That influence will make or mar men. Every word, 
every action, every tone of the voice, every look, 
either withers and blights lives, or blesses them. A 
chance blow destroys the statue. One tap and the 
fragile vase is ruined. One grain of sand destroys 
the most delicate mechanism. Today the engine 
drops a spark behind it, and tomorrow a column of 
fire is mowing down the forest. One word dropped 
today may make the conflagration of tomorrow that 
wrecks and ruins an immortal soul. On the other 
hand, a kind work dropped today kindles the fires 
of hope in a despairing soul and a world is blessed 
by it being spoken. Kind words have sweetness like 
the honeycomb. Marvelous transformation is in 
one word. One kind word and the heart of the 
"Blue bird of mulberry bend" is broken. One kind 
word and a Woolly is given to the world. 

39 



40 Streams from Lebanon 

Carlyle says that "in 1848 during the riot in 
Paris, a mob swept down a street blazing with can- 
non, killed the soldiers, spiked the guns, only to be 
stopped a few blocks beyond by an old, white-haired 
man who uncovered and signalled for silence, and 
with one kind word transformed the mob that can- 
non could not conquer." Our hearts should be 
great magazines of kindness. Happy that man 
whose heart automatically oils all the machinery of 
every day life, in the home, on the street, and wher- 
ever he goes. Here and there a hint of sympathy, 
a kind word, a transient look of pure love, and lo! 
where the reeds and dragon lay the flowers begin to 
bloom, and the parched ground of selfishness is 
covered with water. We pass by poor, miserable 
creatures every day in our crowded thoroughfares, 
who from the corners of the streets on every side 
stretch out gaunt hands, with blue lips and watery 
eyes asking for a penny. The penny is soon gone, 
but they take that kind word home with them to 
hang up in the gallery of their soul to look at in 
other days. 

Emerson has said, "A man was born, not for pros- 
perity, but to suffer for the benefit of others, like 



Streams from Lebanon 41 

the noble rock maple, which, all round our villages, 
bleeds for the service of man." 

This is illustrative of a great truth. We are not 
to hoard up, but to give out to others. How can 
we give if we have not first received? God told 
Abraham He would bless him and that he should be 
a blessing. Here is the secret. The husbandman 
must first be partaker of the fruits. If we are set- 
ting influences in motion that will live forever, how 
careful we should be to do all in the name of the 
Lord and to the glory of God. 



OUR COMING KING. 

There can be no kingdom without a king. The 
God of Heaven shall establish an everlasting king- 
dom on the earth in which Christ shall reign for- 
ever with His saints if the Bible be true. 

Dan. 2 44 : "And in the days of these kings shall 
the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall 
never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be 
left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and 
consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand 
forever." 

Dan. 7:13, 14, 27 \ "I saw in the night visions, 
and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the 
clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, 
and they brought Him near before him. And there 
was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, 
that all people, nations, and languages, should serve 
Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion 
which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that 
which shall not be destroyed. And the kingdom 
and dominion and the greatness of the kingdom 
under the whole heaven, shall he given to the people 

42 



Streams from Lebanon 43 

of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is 
an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall 
serve and obey him." 

Jer. 23:5, 6: "Behold, the days come, saith the 
Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous 
Branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, and 
shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In 
His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell 
safely; and this is His name whereby He shall be 
called, the Lord Our Righteousness." 

Ezek. 21 '.26, 27 : "Thus saith the Lord God; Re- 
move the diadem, take off the crown. * * * / 
will overturn, overturn, overturn it! and it shall be 
no more, until He comes whose right it is; and I will 
give it Him." 

Luke 1 :^2, 33 : "He shall be great, and shall be 
called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God 
shall give unto Him the throne of His Father David; 
and He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, 
and of His kingdom there shall be no end." 

Rev. 11:15-18: "And the seventh angel sounded, 
and there followed great voices in Heaven, and they 
said, The kingdom of the world is become the king- 
dom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He shall 
reign forever and ever * * * And the nations 



44 Streams from Lebanon 

were wroth, and Thy wrath came, and the time of 
the dead to be judged, and the time to give their 
reward to Thy servants the prophets, and to the 
saints, and to them that fear Thy name, the small 
and the great; and to destroy them that destroy the 
earth/' — Revised Version. 

According to these Scriptures, God's people are to 
look forward to the time when their Lord shall come. 
"Of that time knoweth no man, no, not the angels 
of Heaven, but my Father only," 

All through the New Testament God through His 
inspired writers makes the fact of Jesus' coming one 
of the most powerful incentives in the book to live a 
holy life, and momentarily be ready for His appear- 
ing. Note the following passages of Scripture : 

I Thess. 5 :23 : "And the very God of peace sanc- 
tify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit 
and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the 
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 

1 Thess. 3:13: "To the end He may stablish 
your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, 
even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus 
Christ with all His saints." 

2 Pet. 3:3, 4, 13, 14: "Knowing this first, that 
there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking 



Streams from Lebanon 45 

after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the prom- 
ise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, 
all things continue as they were from the begin- 
ning of the creation * * * Nevertheless we, 
according to His promise, look for new heavens and 
a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. 
Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such 
things, be diligent that ye may be found of Him in 
peace, without spot, and blameless.'' 

Back through the centuries the saints have been 
inspired and encouraged through the precious 
promises of God, to look forward to the glorious 
time when Christ shall set up His kingdom wherein 
dwelleth righteousness. Not only the patriarchs, 
but the prophets, with the apostles and the early 
fathers, have left the record that they looked for 
His kingdom, and for His coming. 

Jude 14: "And Enoch also, the seventh from 
Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the 
Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints." 

Said the Council of Nice, A. D. 325: "We ex- 
pect new heavens and a new earth * * * and 
then the saints of the Most High shall take the 
kingdom." 



46 Streams from Lebanon 

Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, A. D. 350, wrote: 
"Do thou look for the true Christ, the Son of God, 
the only begotten, who is henceforth to come 
* * * with angels for His guards, that He may 
judge quick and dead, and reign with a kingdom 
heavenly, eternal, and without end." 

Said Augustine, bishop of Hippo, A. D. 390: "His 
kingdom will come when the resurrection of the 
dead shall have taken place ; for then He will come 
Himself." 

The Waldenses, in their "Noble Lesson," A. D. 
1 1 50, say: "Many signs and great wonders shall 
be from this time forward to the day of judgment. 
The heaven and the earth shall burn; and all the 
living shall die, * * * and then shall be the 
last judgment." 

Said the martyr Latimer: "The saints in that 
day shall be taken up to meet Christ in the air, and 
so shall come down with Him again. * * * 
That man or that woman that saith these words, 
Thy kingdom come/ with a faithful heart, no doubt 
desireth in very deed, that God will come to judg- 
ment and mend all things in this world, and put 
down Satan, that old serpent, under our feet." 

Cotton Mather wrote : "Without doubt the king- 



Streams from Lebanon 47 

doms of this world will not become the kingdom of 
God and of His Christ before the preordained 'time 
of the dead/ in which the reward shall be given to 
the servants of God, and to those that fear His 
name; — the rest of the saints, and the promised 
Sabbath, and the kingdom of God, in which His 
will shall be done on earth as it is in Heaven, and 
those great things of which God hath spoken by the 
mouth of all His prophets, all prophesying as with 
one voice — all shall be confirmed by their fulfill- 
ment in the new earth, not in our defiled and 
accursed earth." 

Charles Wesley, on Ezek. 37 124, 25, wrote thus : 

"Trusting in the literal Word 

We look for Christ on earth again ; 
Come, our everlasting Lord, 
With all Thy saints to reign." 

Now let us notice briefly some of the aspects of 
this new kingdom. 

First. The Negative. 

There will be no devil or sin to mar and blight the 
joy of the people of God. No broken hearts, nor 
blasted lives, nor ruined homes, for the former 
things have passed away. 



48 Streams from Lebanon 

There will be no night there. No death. No 
more disease or aching bodies racked with pain, no 
shrouds ; there will not be any funerals there, nor 
graves to cry over. 

Second. The Positive. 

It will be the source of all happiness. 

It will be the home of God. Here is one home 
we all want to go to. 

It will be the home of the saints and the angels. 
A place of perfect safety, comfort and ease. A 
place of unity, where there is no discord. No more 
misunderstandings, or betrayal of false brethren; 
for the society there will be perfect. 

It will be a kingdom of dignity, beauty and per- 
manence. 

Its environments will be ideal, where the air is 
pure, ethereal and where the flowers bloom forever. 

The unfolding of the glory of God through Jesus 
Christ will go on through the eternities. 

The manifestation of the wisdom, and power, and 
goodness of God in His moral government will be 
ours forever. 

Reader, are you preparing to meet Him, and share 
this glorious kingdom with His saints, and angels 
and with Him when He comes? 



Streams from Lebanon 49 

2 Tim. 4:1 : "I charge thee in the sight of God, 
and of Christ Jesus, who shall judge the quick and 
the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom; 
preach the Word." 



THE LIBERAL SOUL SHALL BE MADE FAT. 

The margin has it "the soul of blessing shall be 
made fat." In other words, the soul that blesses 
others shall have plenty and to spare. The need 
of the hour with us is, not less theory, but more life 
demonstration. Not less truth, but more truth 
coined into character. "Jcsas went about doing 
good." Paul says, "He that knoweth to do good 
and doeth it not, to him it is sin." 

Our profession of holiness will profit the world 
nothing unless we incorporate into our lives the 
principles which Jesus taught. Jesus Christ was 
pre-eminently practical in his life. He was not a 
dreamer, but the realization of humanity's sublim- 
est dream. He made the body the instrument of 
the soul. 

He rejoiced in doing good to others, and in lay- 
ing down his life in sacrifice and service. He left 
us an example that we should follow in his steps. 
His greatest gift to this lost world was himself. 
He revealed the Father. When he expressed his 

50 



Streams from Lebanon 51 

emotions, he flooded men's hearts with love. Oh! 
that we may be more like unto him. 

"There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth." 
Here is the victory. Give away what you have and 
you will have more to give away. Love, sponta- 
neously wrought out through our lives into deeds of 
kindness, will dignify labor, sweeten life and fill in- 
dustry with a song of joy. In our own experiences 
we find there is land yet unexplored, capacities yet 
undeveloped, ideals not realized, and visions of glory 
to which we have never yet attained. 

How shall we reach that point of greatest useful- 
ness to others, the largest growth of soul and mind, 
the full development of all our soul's capacities? 

The philosophy of this question is answered in 
the above caption, "The soul that blesses others shall 
be blessed." Evolution in realization of the best 
and the truest we already have, will bring largeness 
of soul. 

Do not stand on some high eminence and look 
through your telescope toward the stars to find God 
or his temples of worship. If you wish to find God, 
do not search yonder city with glittering steeples 
and cathedral domes where art and architecture have 
wedded to produce strength, beauty and splendor; 



52 Streams from Lebanon 

but search that tenement district yonder, where 
ragged and half-fed homeless children crowd the 
thoroughfares, where wives and mothers, sick and 
careworn, are neglected; yonder, where are over- 
worked and underpaid millions of half-starved, sick 
and abused children in whom heredity and environ- 
ment, ignorance and poverty have combined to pro- 
duce misery, want and crime; yonder, where 
widows and orphans are ground under the iron heel 
of greed, avarice and lust — there you will find where 
God is making the place of his feet glorious. 

Here are opportunities of a lifetime, and effectual 
doors are open to us. Will we sit with our hands 
folded and worship an experience and nurse a bless- 
ing when a lost world is crying for help ? We want 
large dividends, we want to be happy, we want bless- 
ings from God. How shall we get them? Go to 
using your talents. Buy up your opportunities. 
Continually say, "Here, Lord, am I ; send me" and 
then GO. 

Our citizenship involves duty as well as privilege. 
The real heaven is not to be transported beyond the 
milky way to some distant star ; but it is the enlarged 
capacity for usefulness here, the going about doing 
good ; the enlargement of mind and heart and soul, 



Streams from Lebanon 53 

the quickening of spirit to enjoy the world we are 
already in, to apprehend new beauties unseen, 
harmonies unheard, and joys yet unrealized. Our 
religion must not be theoretical and visionary; 
but it must be objective, real and practical. We 
must enter the arena of everyday life with a high 
courage, a steady faith, a determination to live 
practical holiness everywhere we go. 

"The soul that blesses others will be blessed." On 
the other hand, the niggardly and stingy soul will 
shrivel and dry up. 

The thing that pleases God and sets angels to 
shouting, the thing to which men take off their hats 
in this world, is the man who is forging what ma- 
terial he has into deeds of kindness and is turning 
out sterling, majestic, imperial, rock-ribbed char- 
acter, that will shine in this world and will be amaz- 
ing to angels at the judgment. 



THE NEW BIRTH. 

Text. — "Except a man be born again, he cannot 
see the kingdom of God." Let us look at this text 
under three general heads. 

I. The necessity of the new birth. 

II. In what does it consist? 

III. What are the benefits derived from it ? 
First — The necessity of the new birth. 

Just as it is impossible for a man to live in this 
physical world without being born into it, so it is 
impossible for a man to live in the spiritual realm 
without the new birth. 

Without this new birth one cannot see much less 
enter into the kingdom of God. It is a philosophical 
truth, a scientific fact, and an eternal verity ; "Ex- 
cept a man be born from above, he cannot see the 
kingdom of God." 

The religion of our Lord Jesus Christ differs 
from worldly and popular religions of the world, in 
that it brings eternal life into the soul; and this 
eternal or divine life makes one love every body, 
even our enemies. 

54 



Streams from Lebanon 55 

If the needle on a vessel varies in the least, that 
vessel will come short of the desired haven. If a 
soul does not start right it will not come out right. 
Hence the importance of starting right. Our salva- 
tation does not consist in what we do, but in what 
God does in us and for its. 

Some people go to church in order to be Christians, 
but when one is born of the spirit they go to church 
because they are. Christians. The very suggestion 
of birth means a crisis in the life. Hunger and 
thirst pre-supposes life. There can be no life with- 
out the birth. 

I suppose every one expects to get to Heaven. 
There is no one who does not cherish this fond hope 
in his heart at some time or other. Man is born 
into this world with a nature in him that worships 
something ; hence the importance of getting men to 
worship the true God. On every hand we find 
people who trust in their creeds, doctrines and modes 
of worship rather than in God Himself. I often 
look at this text and think how pathetically Jesus 
must have looked on Nicodemus when He said to 
him, "You must be born again." 

Now let us notice secondly, in what does the new 
birth consist? 



56 Streams from Lebanon 

What is this mysterious thing called life and in 
what does it differ with other religions ? 

God only, is the author of life. This is His pre- 
rogative. 

Life depends upon life. If we would live 
spiritually we must be in touch with our living head. 
Who would think of saying "He that hath Moham- 
med hath eternal life" or "He that hath Buddha 
hath eternal life," or "He that hath Confucius hath 
eternal life?" But how simple and familiar the 
scripture "He that hath the Son, hath life." Chris- 
tians are not made like broom handles and turned 
out like factory goods, labeled, and shipped to des- 
tination; Christians are born. There is as much 
difference in a real experience of salvation and a 
mere profession as there is in a real living child 
and a rag doll. About all some people have is the 
rag doll of profession. There is much difference in 
a real geranium and a rag posey. A rock and a 
plant have much the same in substance in common, 
yet the plant has something so unique and different 
from that of the rock, that were a biologist to class- 
ify it he would not only put it in a separate class 
from the rock; but he would class it altogether in 
another KINGDOM. Just as the mineral kingdom 



Streams from Lebanon 57 

is hermetically sealed against the annual kingdom, 
so the natural man is sealed against the spiritual 
kingdom. 

The natural man can not only "Not receive" the 
things of the spirit of God ; but he cannot KNOW 
them. 

"But the natural man receiveth not the things 
of the Spirit of God : for they are foolishness unto 
him: neither can he know them, because they are 
spiritually discerned. 1st Cor. 2:14. 

It is an old fashioned and stern theology that says 
sinners are DEAD, nevertheless it is true. The 
birth of a soul is out of the kingdom of death into 
the kingdom of life. Out of darkness into light. 

Mr. Herbert Spencer, the eminent scientist, says, 
"If in the natural world we had perfect environ- 
ment, we should have perpetual, or everlasting, 
life." To this Mr. Darwin and Mr. Huxley both 
agree. While it is true that in the natural world 
we have not perfect environment, yet in the spiritual 
we have. God is the environment of the child born 
from above, for "in Him we live and move and 
have our being." This is why the Scriptures tell 
us in the words of Jesus, "He that believeth on me 



58 Streams from Lebanon 

shall never die," and again, "He that believeth on 
me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." 

The constituent elements of the natural man are 
oxygen, hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen, with a 
mixture of iron, lime, phosphorus, soda, starch ; and 
finer substances known to the chemist as ozmazone, 
chloresterin, condrin, rezin, etc. 

These bodies are sustained by these elements of 
which they are made, hence we seek the food made 
of the above named substances to sustain natural 
life. Scientists tell us that if the elements of 
death were neither in the food we eat nor the water 
we drink, or were not in the air we breathe, we 
would live perpetually. But since the seeds of death 
are in the food, air, and water we use, death ensues 
finally. 

Now when we come to the constituents of the 
spiritual, we have love, joy, peace, goodness, gentle- 
ness, faith, meekness, etc. against which there is no 
law. The Christian born into the kingdom whose 
environment is God, finds in Him that which sus- 
tains the spiritual. 

When Jesus wanted to tell the disciples what the 
Word of God was like, He did not refer to gems 
or the precious stones of earth, but he called their 



Streams from Lebanon 59 

attention to the husbandman sowing his seed. Now 
He says the "Seed is the Word of God." 

Why did He use this as an illustration ? Because 
the seed has something in it man cannot make — 
the principle of life. 

After all our boasted advance in civilization and 
splendid achievements in new inventions and prog- 
ress on all lines, all of the scientists of the ages put 
together could not make one grain of corn. They 
might put some substances with the proper coloring 
matter together and it would look like it would grow, 
but it lacks something that man cannot give — LIFE. 

Life in the physical world is a mystery. Who 
understands it ? It is to be found in every insect, in 
every blade of grass, in every bird flying through 
the air. We have six thousand years of recorded 
history and we know no more about this mysterious 
thing called life, than in the beginning. No won- 
der Nicodemus said, "How can these things be?" 
when Jesus told him, "Ye must be born again." If 
we cannot understand the mystery of the physical, 
how shall we understand the mysteries of the 
spiritual ? My friend, our salvation is not a science, 
it is a revelation. 



60 Streams from Lebanon 

He answered and said unto them, Because it 
is given unto you to know the mysteries of the king- 
dom of heaven, but to them it is not given. Matt. 
13:11. 

This great mystery that has baffled the scholars 
of this world of all ages is made known to us 
through the revelation of God, to His children in 
the new birth of the soul from above. 

Now we have received, not the spirit of the 
world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we 
might know the things that are freely given to us 
of God. I Cor. 2-12. 

Paul in unfolding the subject of spiritual knowl- 
edge in 1 st Cor., second chapter, says: 

But God hath revealed them unto us by His 
Spirit : for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the 
deep things of God. 

For what man knoweth the things of a man, 
save the spirit of man which is in him ? even so the 
things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of 
God. 

Now we have received, not the spirit of the 
world, but the spirit which is of God ; that we might 
know the things that are freely given to us of God. 

Which things also we speak, not in the words 



Streams from Lebanon 61 

which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy 
Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with 
spiritual. 

In the above scripture, the Apostle is showing 
that the natural man cannot understand the things 
of the spirit. His logic is as if he had said, as the 
animal creation is lower than man (because man 
has a superior intelligence and knowledge to the 
animal kingdom, and it cannot comprehend the 
things of man) so the natural man is lower than 
the spiritual and he cannot understand the things 
of the spirit. 

Therefore, if the natural man would know the 
things of the kingdom of God, there must of neces- 
sity be a transition, a revelation if you please. 

Jesus did not say "I am come that you might be 
baptized, or that you might belong to the church," 
but He did say "I am come that you might have 
LIFE, and that you might have IT more abun- 
dantly." Paul says "The gift of God is eternal 
LIFE." It is not what you do, that saves you ; but 
what God does in and for you. 

Thirdly, let us now look at some of the benefits 
derived from the new Birth. 

In the first place it puts us into another world, 



62 Streams from Lebanon 

so to speak. It gives us a new crowd to run with. 
New aspirations as well as new inspirations. It 
brings peace and joy with perfect rest and con- 
tentment. 

Our name goes down in the lamb's book of life, 
and we are adopted into the family of God. Every- 
thing in this world seems newly changed, when the 
fact is, the change or new creation is with us 
(within) and not in the world without. It puts us 
on the run for holiness. Every man born from 
above believes in and seeks for entire sanctification. 

"Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after 
righteousness, for they shall be filled." How could 
one hunger after holiness when he had never been 
born? 

Every holiness fighter on earth, whether in the 
church or out, advertises the fact that he is a 
stranger to the new birth. When we are born of 
God we have His nature in us. We will then hate 
what God hates and love what He loves. 

A good evidence of the new birth, is that one will 
want to be holy. It enables us to walk in the light 
and not in the darkness. It enables one to live 
without sin. 

He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the 



Streams from Lebanon 63 

devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose 
the Son of God was manifested, that he might de- 
stroy the works of the devil. 

Whosoever is born of God doth not commit 
sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot 
sin, because he is born of God. 

In this the children of God are manifest, and 
the children of the devil. 1st John, 3 :8, 10. 

It will take the love of the world out one's heart. 

Love not the world, neither the things that 
are in the world. If any man love the world, the 
love of the Father is not in him. 1st Jno., 2:15. 

It will enable one to love their enemies. 

Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou 
shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. 

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless 
them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, 
and pray for them which despitefully use you, and 
persecute you ; 

That ye may be the children of your Father 
which is in heaven. Matt. 5 143, 44, 45. 
In conclusion: 

Dear reader, it is a fact God has saved His people 
all down the ages, and multiplied thousands have 



64 Streams from Lebanon 

experienced the new birth and lived the life in this 
world. 

You will have to have it if you ever see or enter 
into the kingdom of God. Without it you are lost 
forever. 

The question is will you have iff 



HEALING BY THE GREAT PHYSICIAN. 

Healing is one of the extraordinary gifts men- 
tioned in the twelfth chapter of ist Corinthians, 9th 
verse. It is the gracious privilege extended to the 
child of God who can reach up and lay hold of the 
promises, appropriate them and make them his very 
own. 

We believe that the Holy Spirit, dividing to every 
man "severally as He will," will enable the child of 
God to lay hold on help that is mighty. Halle- 
lujah ! We do not mean presumption and insubor- 
dination to the will of God, or scornfully under- 
valuing the services of a good physician, or renounc- 
ing all known remedies and blindly assuming 
something that is not based on Scripture or common 
sense; but we do mean the conscious evidence and 
persuasion of the indwelling Holy Spirit, that the 
work will be done through the direct supernatural 
pozver of God. 

This is not the exercise of the will power. 

It is not faith cure. 

65 



66 Streams from Lebanon 

It is not Christian Science, nor mind cure. 

It is not the power of magnetism. 

It is the direct operation of the Holy Spirit on 
our bodies, in accordance with the holy Scriptures 
and based on a thus "saith the Lord" When Jesus 
was on earth He always said to those who sought 
Him for anything, "according to your faith" 

We should neither condemn, nor discourage 
those who are not able to reach up and lay hold of 
the precious promises; but, instead, encourage 
them and help them to see that our Heavenly 
Father "is no respecter of persons; but in every 
nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteous- 
ness, is accepted with Him." 

In closing, let me give you some quotations from 
Wesley's works : 

"Is any sick among you? Let him call for the 
elders of the Church; and let them pray over him, 
anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; 
and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the 
Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed 
sins, they shall be forgiven him." James 5 :i4, 15. 

This single conspicuous gift, which Christ com- 
mitted to His apostles (Mark 6:13) remained in the 
Church long after the miraculous gifts were with- 



Streams from Lebanon 6j 

drawn. Indeed, it seems to have been designed to 
remain always, and St. James directs the elders, 
who were the most, if not the only gifted men, to 
administer it. This was the only process of physic 
in the Christian Church till it was lost through un- 
belief. That novel invention among Romanists, 
practiced, not for cure, but where life is despaired 
of, bears no resemblance to this. 

"And the prayer of faith shall save the sick!' 
From his sickness; and if any sin be the occasion 
of his sickness, it shall be forgiven him. — Notes on 
New Testament. 

Sunday, May 10, 1 741. — At our love- feast which 
followed, besides the pain in my back and head, and 
the fever which still continued upon me, just as I 
began to pray I was seized with such a cough that 
I could hardly speak. At the same time came 
strangely into my mind, "These signs shall follow 
them that believe" I called on Jesus aloud to in- 
crease my faith and to conform the word of grace. 
While I was speaking my pain vanished away, the 
fever left me, my bodily strength returned, and for 
many weeks I felt neither weakness nor pain. 
Unto thee, O Lord, do I give thanks ! — Journal, 
Vol L, page 210. 



68 Streams from Lebanon 

Wednesday, November 12, 1746. — In the even- 
ing at the chapel my teeth pained me very much. 
In coming home, Mr. Spear gave me an account of 
the rupture he had had for some years, which, after 
the most eminent physicians had declared incurable, 
was perfectly cured in a moment. I prayed with 
submission to the will of God. My pain ceased and 
returned no more. — Journal, Vol. I., page 382. 

Tuesday, April 6, 1756. — One was informing me 
of an eminent instance of the power of faith. "Many 
years ago," said she, "I fell and sprained my ankle 
so that I never expected it would be quite well. 
Seven years since, last September, I was coming' 
home from the preaching on a very dark night, and, 
stumbling over a piece of wood, fell with the whole 
weight of my body upon my lame foot. I thought, 
'Oh, I shall not be able to hear Thy Word again for 
many weeks !' Immediately a voice went through 
my heart, 'Name the name of Jesus, and thou shalt 
stand.' I leaped up, and stretched out my foot, and 
said, 'Lord Jesus Christ, I name Thy name ; let me 
stand.' And pain ceased, and I stood up, and my 
foot was as strong as ever." — Journal, Vol. I., pages 
599, 6oo- 



THE BAPTISM WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT 
AND FIRE. 

In the third chapter of Matthew and in the 
eleventh verse, we have the truth brought to the 
surface of the province of the Holy Spirit in the 
believer's heart, under the similitude of fire; which 
is to penetrate, illuminate and invigorate the heart 
until the .whole nature is assimilated and trans- 
formed into the image of God. His presence in 
the heart of the believing child of God, pours a flood 
of light throughout the courts and chambers of the 
temple of conscience, till the whole man is changed 
and morally transfigured. He is like a sun — he 
shines. 

The Holy Spirit operates as a fire, especially 
where He dwells in the heart that is pure and zeal- 
ous. There are instances where He operates as 
water, and again as oil, and again as the wind, but 
perhaps the highest mode of His operation is in the 
form of fire. Heat is an essential element of life, 
as the heat that is in the blood, and in the vegetable 
kingdom, and in all living things. Death is essen- 

69 



yo Streams from Lebanon 

tially cold, and life is essentially warm, and hence 
heat and life are joined together in the Scriptures 
in one word zoo-pur, "a living fire." Love in the 
spirit is what warm blood is in the heart. It is the 
fire of the soul, and when the mind is full of love it 
acts to the best advantage, just as vegetation does its 
best in the summer time. A soul devoid of divine 
love is living in the winter, and needs to be thawed 
out. There is something in the life of the soul like 
the four seasons of the year in the realm of nature, 
and just as when the autumn comes on we need to 
kindle the fires, so there are autumn periods in life, 
and then we need to kindle afresh the celestial fires 
of grace. 

Fire is the most inexplicable and one of the pro- 
foundest symbols found anywhere in the annals of 
our universal Cosmos. It is potential — found every- 
where — dynamic — it runs every wheel in all the 
machinery of the universe of God. 

Occult — it burns and roars in the lightning's shaft 
and works in all the moving elements, carrying for- 
ward the divine mandate in the operations of nature 
all about us. 

It forges the particles into a rose leaf and drives 
the ship over the sea; it tosses the billows of sun- 



Streams from Lebanon yi 

light a million miles high and drives the great Halley 
comet through space at the rate of more than a mil- 
lion miles a day. Fire applied and utilized is energy. 
What would a locomotive do with a tank filled with 
coal and the boiler with water were there no fire in 
her internal parts? She would be what we would 
call, in railroad parlance, "An old dead camel." 
Now, in a high, supersensuous, uncreated sense, the 
very foundation of essential God is fire and light. 
Not created fire, for it burned in the bush without 
consuming the bush, and when it shone upon Saul 
of Tarsus was brighter than the noonday sun — yet 
it was fire ; it descended on Mount Horeb and was 
a pillar of fire in the wilderness. Did not fire from 
the Lord consume Aaron's sacrifice, Gideon's sacri- 
fice, David's sacrifice, Elijah's sacrifice? 

Without the baptism with the Holy Ghost and 
fire we will be dead and inert, cold and formal, going 
nowhere in particular, warming nothing into life 
and energy. 

The divine energy burning in the soul is the great- 
est need of the church of to-day. The need of the 
hour is not more wheels and belts and pulleys, etc., 
but more divine power to drive what she has already. 



*]2 Streams from Lebanon 

Thos. A. Edison, the inventor, writing in the 
Literary Digest, says : 

"Radium has great power. It has no appreciable 
limit. It is non-combustible. A carload of radium 
would have as much energy as all the millions of 
tons of coal mined in the United States in one year. 
I have a spintharascope, which is a tiny bit of 
radium, of a size that will go through an eye of a 
needle, mounted over a piece of willemite. It has 
been shooting of! millions of sparks for the six 
years that I have had it, and I expect it will be 
shooting off millions of sparks the same way for 
thousands of years." 

We see from this that power is all about us in 
the material world, and it is only a question of time 
till we will be able to harness this wasted energy 
just as Franklin slipped the bridle on the lightning 
and harnessed it for the use of the world. 

So, my brother, in the spiritual world all about 
us there is undiscovered energy just out there at 
the ends of our finger tips, that if we can get hold 
of and utilize, will move the arm that moves the 
universe. The secret of that is, the baptism with 
the Holy Ghost and fire. Just here is the secret of 



Streams from Lebanon 73 

successful living as well as the secret of successful 
doing. 

We cannot too well remember that what a man 
does is the expression of what he is. To be, is first, 
both in order of thought and of fact; then to do. 
We must communicate in life, to others, that which 
is communicated to us. I do not mean that you will 
be God's telephone or speaking tube, but you will 
impart a burning message wherever you go, and 
that a message of love and sacrifice kindled with a 
fire in the soul that drives with increased momentum 
and power for the salvation of a lost race. 



THE SEVENTH CHAPTER OF ROMANS. 

We are aware of the fact that when we take the 
position that the seventh chapter of Romans is 
descriptive of a regenerated man wrestling with 
inbred sin and struggling to be freed from it, a 
storm of protest will arise, in some quarters. That 
this man had a law of life in him is seen in the 
eighth chapter in the second verse, "For the law of 
the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free 
from the law of sin and death." No unregenerated 
man has the law of life in him, for the Bible declares 
that the sinner or unregenerate man is dead. 

The struggle in the seventh chapter is to be freed 
from the "law of sin and death." In the 14th verse 
of this chapter he says, "I am carnal, sold under 
sin." Here is an unsanctified Christian awakened 
and under conviction for inbred sin and is longing 
to be freed from a something that makes him a 
wretched man. 

Of course he is carnal ! That is what he is con- 
fessing. That is the wail of his soul. "Sold under 
sin." A deeper recognition of the fact. It does not 

74 



Streams from Lebanon 75 

say he is a sinner, but that he is sold under sin. 
Adam, our federal head, sold out the whole human 
family and, they are still sold out until they have sin 
crucified and get rid of the carnal mind. 

In the 22nd verse it is said that he "delights" in 
the law of God in the inward man. Now a sinner 
has no "inner" man, for that is of divine creation, 
and no legalist or sinner ever had that. How could 
a man delight in the law of God when he is dead 
to it? 

The very heart core of this chapter is the agoniz- 
ing cry of a soul to get rid of a dark abiding some- 
thing that dwells in him. It is not the cry of a 
penitent or the confession of an outbreaking crimi- 
nal in sin, begging for repentance, as there is no 
sign of repentance anywhere in this chapter. 

Nowhere does he say "Blot out my transgres- 
sions" nor "hide Thy face from my iniquities," but 
he does say "I am carnal." 

This is reasonable and perfectly compatible with 
regeneration. Paul says of the Corinthians "Ye 
are yet carnal." Now that they were "Babes in 
Christ" no one will deny. He calls them "brethren," 
and says "I could not speak unto you as unto 
spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in 



76 Streams from Lebanon 

Christ." Then again, this man says in the 25th 
verse: "So then with the mind I myself serve the 
law of God." 

An unregenerate sinner does not serve the law of 
God. He not only says "He serves it," but that he 
"consents that it is good," and furthermore makes 
the additional statement that he "DELIGHTS in 
it." The man that serves, and consents to and de- 
lights in, the law of God — is certainly a saved man. 

In the 21 st verse he says, "I find then a law, that, 
when I would do good, evil is present with me." 

What regenerated child of God has never felt 
this same thing? And again in the 15th verse 
"What I would, that I do not." All up and down 
this broad land are multitudes of regenerated people 
who have this experience and will have it until they 
are sanctified wholly. Let the child of God who is 
not yet entirely sanctified, ask himself the question, 
Have I not had this same experience ? Yonder, when 
you should have spoken to that soul about their 
salvation and you were just at the point to ask the 
question, do you remember how your heart beat and 
your face flushed and you came almost to the point 
two or three times, and finally you went away feel- 
ing badly over your failure, and when you were 



Streams from Lebanon yy 

alone again you wondered why you did not have 
more courage. 

Or perchance it may have been in a meeting where 
testimony was being given and you made the at- 
tempt to speak, and "something" seemed to check 
you, and it may be that you were cheated out of 
your testimony entirely at that time. But, says one, 
a child of God can testify any place. Yes, that is 
true, but they do not always do it, and this dark 
something in the soul is the great drawback and 
hindrance to them in their work. To the unsanctified 
reader, I would say, that miserable, slavish, man- 
fearing spirit can be entirely cleansed out of the 
soul. "He that feareth is not made perfect in love." 
"Perfect love casteth out fear." "If the Son there- 
fore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." 

"What I hate that I do," 15th verse. 

Where is the unsanctified Christian that has not 
at times felt the uprising of pride, or anger and you 
actually did the thing you hated? "But," says the 
objector, "In verse eighteen he says, 'But how to 
perform that which is good I find not/ how can you 
reconcile this to a Christian ?" 

He is just simply saying, that in his flesh dwell- 



78 Streams from Lebanon 

eth no good thing, or in other words, that the flesh 
or sin that dwelleth in him, that dark something does 
not know how to perform that which is right or good, 
and in the same breath he says, "It is no more I 
that do it (that I would not), but sin that dwelleth 
in me." It is the spontaneous outburst of an honest 
heart, confessing carnality and telling the truth on 
that dark something in the soul; stating in plain 
terms that it will not do right and that it wants to 
do wrong, and that it brings him into captivity and 
it makes him wretched and he is praying for de- 
liverance. 

"Sin that dwelleth in me," 20th verse. 

Sin reigns in a sinner and rules him, but dwells 
in the unsanctified heart. If it reigned in this man's 
heart in the seventh chapter of Romans, then how 
could he serve the law of God and say it is good and 
DELIGHT in it? 

Here is no confession of actual sins, but the la- 
mentable wail of a soul powerless to eject that some- 
thing from the heart that brings it into captivity. 

Sin in the singular number is here used, not sins 
in the plural ; but a something that dwelleth in the 
man. 

This man is bound, handicapped, and seeks re- 



Streams from Lebanon 79 

lease. To be sure, this is paradoxical, but I might 
add the whole Christian life is, in a sense. 

"By honor and dishonor, by evil report and good 
report ; as deceivers, and yet true ; as unknown, and 
yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as 
chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always 
rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich ; as having 
nothing, and yet possessing all things." 2 Cor. 6 :8, 
9, 10. 

This sin that dwelleth in him "Wars against him." 

"I see another law in my members, warring 
against the law of my mind." In the sinner's life, 
sin dominates without a rival. But as soon as he is 
regenerated the law of life is introduced, and a con- 
tinuous battle is on. 

Now, this old Ishmaelite must be cast out with 
the bondwoman if the newly born Isaac of the soul 
would live. 

"Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children 
of promise. But as then he that was born after the 
flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, 
even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the 
scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son; 
for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with 
the son of the free woman. So then, brethren, we 



80 Streams from Lebanon 

are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free." 
Gal. 4:28, 31. 

The very heart cry of this man is for freedom. 
"Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" 

The figure here used was a mode of punishment 
for certain kinds of criminals in the Roman empire, 
when a corpse was tied face to face with the living 
man and cast into the prison to wait until decompo- 
sition of the dead body set in and brought death to 
the living man. 

Paul likens sin to a dead body in this scripture 
and in the eighth chapter, 6th verse, he says, 'To 
be carnally minded is death." Life and death are 
opposites and one or the other must go sooner or 
later. Before a person is regenerated there is no 
life (spiritual) existing, and death reigns supremely, 
for God says that the sinner is "dead in trespasses 
and sins." 

When one is regenerated, eternal life is infused 
into that dead soul, or in other words the law of 
LIFE, which is diametrically and eternally opposed 
to the law of sin and DEATH. 

Here is the warface. Now, in simple terms, when 
God regenerates a soul, He gives it something it 
never had before, which is eternal life, and when 



Streams from Lebanon 81 

He sanctifies it He takes away something it has 
always had, which is eternal death. Now in the 
beginning of this chapter he speaks to justify the 
law. A woman is bound by the law so long as her 
husband lives, but if he be dead, she is freed from 
that law. 

So, we were bound by the law until Christ died 
and freed us from the law. Sin was in the world 
before there was any law. "For until the law sin 
was in the world." Rom. 5:13. 

"But when the commandment (or law) came, sin 
revived and I died." Rom. 7:9. In other words, 
Paul is telling us that we would not have known 
that we were dead in trespasses and sins but by the 
law. 

The fifth and sixth verses of this chapter are the 
key to the whole chapter. 

"For when we were in the flesh, the motions of 
sins, which were by the law, did work in our mem- 
bers to bring forth fruit unto death." 5th verse. 

For when we were in the flesh — that is, in the 
unregenerated state and dead in sin and void of 
the life of God or anything that is good ; or as God 
pictures it in another place, "That every imagina- 
tion of the thoughts of his heart was only evil con- 



82 Streams from Lebanon 

tinually." Does the reader see anything in this pic- 
ture of the unregenerate heart that God gives, that 
looks anything like "Serving," "consenting to," or 
"delighting in," the law of God? 

No life here. But rather the opposite. The law 
shows him that the working or motions (passions), 
(R. V.) of sin brought forth death. Now up to 
this time he has been justifying the law and bringing 
us to see that Christ died to free us from it, and 
now he turns the picture and shows us the differ- 
ence in the oldness of the letter and the NEWNESS 
OF SPIRIT. 

"But now we are delivered from the law, that 
being dead wherein we were held; that we should 
serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness 
of the letter." 6th verse. 

After this verse he continues at some length to 
justify the law up to the fourteenth verse and here 
discovers something in him that makes him do things 
he would not, and leave undone the things he would. 
And in the 23rd verse he calls it another law in his 
members warring against the law of his mind. 

He did not have this warfare back under the law, 
from the fact that under the law he was DEAD. 

This law in his members, warring against the 



Streams from Lebanon 83 

law of his mind, brings him into captivity tc the 
law of sin, which he says "DWELLETH in me." 

Then he cries, "Who shall deliver me from the 
body of this death ?" 

He was not disturbed back yonder under the law 
when he was dead, but now he has a new spirit and 
is not under law but under grace, and the new 
spirit or inner man delights in the law of God, when 
lo ! he sees this law of sin in his members and likens 
it to the body of death and cries, "O wretched man 
that I am! who shall deliver me?" and in the next 
breath says, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our 
Lord." Here is his deliverance— CHRIST. The 
one who delivered him yonder from the law is to 
furthermore deliver him from another law that is 
in him and that wars against the new life of his 
soul. 

Hence, in the eighth chapter he triumphantly 
shouts, verses 1-3 : "There is therefore now no 
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, 
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath 
made me free from the law of sin and death. For 
what the law could not do, in that it was weak 
through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the 



84 Streams from Lebanon 

likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin 
in the flesh." 

Here he is FREE from the law of sin and death, 
and it is brought about through Jesus Christ his 
Lord. 

And let me say, dear reader, that if you are 
struggling with the law of sin which is carnality in 
your heart, Jesus Christ can make YOU free. 

'Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on 
Him, If ye continue in My word, then are ye My 
disciples indeed. And ye shall know the truth, and 
the truth shall make you free. They answered 
Him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in 
bondage to any man ; how sayest Thou, Ye shall be 
made free ? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I 
say unto you, whatsoever committeth sin is the serv- 
ant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house 
forever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son 
therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free in- 
deed." John 8:31-36. 

Notice, these Jews believed on Him, they were 
not sinners but believers. They were already in the 
truth or they certainly could not CONTINUE in 
it and yet Jesus says to them that if they will con- 



Streams from Lebanon 85 

tinue in the truth that it shall make them FREE 
indeed. 

This indeed freedom from sin is what every un- 
sanctified child of God needs and is what they can 
have. 

That is nothing more nor less than the seventh 
chapter of Romans teaches; that Christians strug- 
gling with "carnality" in their hearts, can have 
perfect deliverance and blessed FREEDOM from 
the sin that dwelleth in them. 



HEART PURITY. 

First: Heart purity will be heaven's requisite 
and demand upon entrance there. Whatever else 
we may or may not have, without this priceless gem 
we shall be denied entrance. 

Christian, or heart purity, as the great evangelical 
fact of holiness, is the extirpation of all sin in prin- 
ciple from the soul, or the absence of all pollution 
in the heart of a believer, and stands forth promi- 
nently throughout all the Scriptures. 

Nor does it consist so much of what is in the 
heart, as what is not in the heart. " Cleansed from 
all sin." Of course, impurity is removed from the 
soul only by the positive presence of the Holy Ghost 
working in it. I believe it is Rev. Richard Watson 
who says: "The absence of all evil is necessarily 
the presence of all good." 

When the soul is cleansed it is not vacated. All 
the graces of the Spirit remain in it. The positive 
virtues, perfect in number, are all important to the 
soul in regeneration ; and the cleansing — the nega- 
tive implies the positive, for when remaining im- 

86 



Streams from Lebanon 87 

purity is removed these graces remain, existing in 
simplicity, perfect in quality. 

In the heart is the true fountain of all evil, and 
there the sanctification of man must begin and be 
completed. A "pure heart" is one that is cleansed 
from all indwelling sin, and is morally clean and 
right before God. 

The heart is the seat of moral action — of good or 
evil — of sin or Holiness. It is that in man of which 
moral character, or moral quality may be predicted. 

To be pure is literally to be clean, clear, unmixed, 
and undefiled. Like the sunbeam, or in other words, 
like the strained honey. To have no part dark, but 
to be clean clear through, and clear through clean. 
It implies the extirpation of all unholy desires, im- 
aginations, tendencies, and affections. 

Heart purity is the negative side of Holiness. 

True holiness implies the presence of all the posi- 
tive graces and virtues in the heart, to the exclusion 
of their opposite vices, as love without hatred, sub- 
mission without rebellion, faith without unbelief, 
humility without pride, meekness without anger, 
patience without impatience, and peace without 
strife. 



88 Streams from Lebanon 

Purity in the Scripture is applied to "linen," to 
"water" and to "gold." 

"Pure and white linen," is untarnished and un- 
stained linen. 

"Pure water" is that which is clean and clear. 
"Pure gold" is that which is unmixed and without 
tin, dross, or alloy. Hebrews 10:22; Rev. 15:6; 
21 :i8. A pure heart implies a cleansing farther 
back and deeper down than outward purity; the 
soul itself washed from all defilement so as to be 
free from all impurity, resulting in an irreproach- 
able conscience and a holy life. 

The negative aspect of Holiness, which is purity, 
is a fixed condition or state. It does not admit of 
comparison or enlargement. While on the other 
hand the positive side admits of advancement, de- 
velopment, and enlarging. Purity pertains to qual- 
ity, and growth to size or quantity. Anything that 
is pure, can't be purer than pure. 

As purity is the negative part of salvation, and 
perfect love the positive, these blessings are con- 
comitant, and enter into the heart at the same time. 
As the absence of all disease in the body means the 
presence of perfect health, so, the absence of all 
sin in the heart means the presence of perfect holi- 



Streams from Lebanon 89 

ness. Hence the folly of one's saying, I take it by 
faith and I am waiting for the witness. The very 
moment you exercise perfect faith, that moment 
the blessing comes, and you have the witness in 
your heart. The bringing a lamp into a dark room 
excludes the darkness the moment of entering. As 
one comes in the other goes out. 

Now, one may say, I took it by faith and it was 
so many hours or days before the blessing came. 
Well, the truth is, you may have thought you had 
faith, and indeed you did, but that faith was not 
perfect, for the very moment it was perfected the 
blessing came. No, light and darkness can't stay 
in the same room at once. 

Purity is not the capacity, or strength, or develop- 
ment of the soul, but is its freedom from sin. These 
items may be associated with purity, but they do not 
constitute its identity. Just as physical health does 
not consist in size and weight or strength of body, 
but its freedom from disease ; although these items 
may be associated with health, yet they do not con- 
stitute its identity. 

"Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying 
the truth." 

Many hear and know the truth, but are not puri- 



90 Streams from Lebanon 

fied by it, because they do not submit to it, or obey it. 

The Gospel is called "the truth/' It proclaims 
the great uncleanness of the soul, and its Divine 
remedy. 

"Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is 
truth/' 

"Now ye are clean through the word which I have 
spoken unto you." 

Now notice the text says : "Seeing ye have pur- 
ified your souls." In what way do we understand 
this to be done — to purify our souls? We purify 
ourselves by submitting, and giving ourselves over 
to God, just as we would give our soiled clothes 
over to the laundryman to be washed. In this sense 
we purify ourselves. In other words, our souls are 
purified in "obeying the truth." The Word of God 
is here represented as the instrument of our purifica- 
tion. 

Second: Now, let us notice briefly how a pure 
heart is obtained. 

In Acts 15 :8, 9, Peter tells us that our hearts are 
"purified by faith." Ninth verse, "And put no dif- 
ference between us, and them, purifying their hearts 
by faith." 



Streams from Lebanon 91 

Faith in the blood is the channel through which 
comes the cleansing. John says, "If we walk in 
the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship 
one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his 
Son cleanseth ns from all sin." 

Obedience and faith bring us into the realm of 
knowledge. The blood is efficacious. "How much 
more shall the blood of Christ, who, through the 
eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, 
purge your conscience from dead works to serve 
the living God?" Heb. 9:14. A purged conscience 
is one that is pure. "The end of the commandment 
is love out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, 
and of faith unfeigned. " A pure heart brings a 
good conscience and unfeigned faith. 

The above Scripture quoted from Hebrews, with 
context, teaches that the sacrifices of the old dis- 
pensation could not purge the conscience, and take 
away the guilt and the defilement of sin, but at best 
could only "sanctify to the purifying of the flesh." 
That is, free the man from ceremonial uncleanness, 
and typify and point to the "Lamb of God, which 
taketh away the sin of the world." 

The cleansing efficacy of Christ's blood, offered 
without spot to God, is sufficient to "purge the con- 



92 Streams from Lebanon 

science from dead works," and reach the very heart 
defiled with sin, and remove all uncleanness, "and 
renew the soul in righteousness and true holiness." 

Just as His vicarious death was offered without 
spot to God, He can so purify the soul that it will 
be "without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing/' 
And mark you, the recipient of a pure heart gets it 
only through faith in the blood of Christ, and never 
in any other way. 

Paul, in I Tim. 3 :g, speaks of "holding the mys- 
tery of faith in a pure conscience/' 

"Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees, 

And looks to that alone : 
Laughs at impossibilities, 
And cries, 'It shall be done !' 

"I wait till he shall touch me clean, 
Shall life and power impart, 
Give me the faith that casts out sin, 
And purifies the heart." — Wesley. 

This kind of faith climbs over ceremonies, or- 
dinances, theories, symbols, types, shadows, and 
stops at nothing short of the throne-room on high, 



Streams from Lebanon . 93 

has audience with God, receives the application of 
the Blood, and is actually made partaker of His 
Holiness, the imparted righteousness of Christ. As 
holy as He is holy, in the sense of being clean, as 
He is clean from all sin. 

"Because AS He which called you is holy, SO be 
ye holy in all manner of living." (R. V.) I Peter 
1:15. 

This faith brings us into the experience of being 
as clean and holy in this world, as we will ever be 
in heaven a million years from now. 

Third: Now let us notice for a few moments 
the result of being pure. "Unto unfeigned love." 
Love that is unfeigned, is loving without effort. It 
springs spontaneously from the heart, and not only 
that, but it is fervent. Love not put on, but literally 
flowing out. Fervent means fiery, warm melted. 

"Love is the fulfilling of the law." 

The supreme test of all religions in the world is 
love. 

The religion of Jesus Christ is the only religion 
of the world that loves and lays itself out for others. 
And Jesus said, "By this shall all men know that ye 
are my disciples, if ye have love one for another." 



94 Streams from Lebanon 

John 13 135. Thus we have the great distinguishing 
fact and principle between the religion of Jesus 
Christ and other religions. And to impress this fact 
he gave a new commandment, that we ought to love 
as he loved. "That ye love one another, as I have 
loved you." John 13 134. 

"Unto unfeigned love of the brethren!' 

"Let brotherly love continue." "But as touching 
brotherly love, ye need not that I write unto you; 
for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one 
another." I Thess. 4:9. "Behold, how good and 
how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in 
unity." Psalm 133:1. 

"And Abraham said unto Lot, let there be no 
strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and be- 
tween my herdsmen and thy herdsmen, for we be 
brethren." Gen. 13:8. "Be kindly affectioned one 
to another with brotherly love ; in honor preferring 
one another." Romans 12:10. 

"Let nothing be done through strife or vain- 
glory ; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others 
better than themselves." Phil. 2-3. 

"And to godliness, brotherly kindness." II Peter 
1:7. 



Streams from Lebanon 95 

"Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear 
of God." Eph. 5:21. 

The above Scriptures prove conclusively that we 
should "walk in love," and that it should be the 
disinterested, unassuming, self-forgetting kind that 
our Lord has, for by this shall the world know that 
we are His disciples. God grant that we may have 
this kind. 

Let love without dissimulation be 

Mine ever to possess ; 
That always seeks some other's good 

With truest kindliness. 

A love unfeigned, that's always true, 
That suffereth long and is kind ; 

And self- forgetting, ever new, 
With all lowliness of mind. 

O grant that nothing in my soul 
May dwell, but thy pure love alone ; 

Enkindled, flaming, possess me whole, 
And all my life be love. 

My joy, my treasure, and my crown, 
My all in all with Thee is found, 
Holiness, Purity, Happiness, Heaven, 
Thro' Jesus Christ on earth is given. 



SERVING GOD IN HOLINESS. 

The negative aspect of holiness is the positive 
eradication of all sin out of the heart. Failure in 
the right conception of sin means also failure in the 
right conception of its remedy. 

The pantheistic school teaches that sin is inherent 
in matter, and is co-eternal with good. Others 
teach that it was a predetermined purpose of God 
that it should exist, and that it is a thought co- 
eternal with Himself as a means of unfolding the 
scheme of redemption. The fallacy of the first 
theory is easily seen, but to say in the second that 
sin was necessary to develop the gospel scheme 
would be to say it was a necessary agency in the 
hands of God for good. Now, every candid observer 
knows that no good can come from evil. 

Revelation teaches that angels sinned, and lost 
their first estate, before man was ever created. 

How sin could enter a holy universe is the ques- 
tion of the ages. 

Dr. Whedon says, "The free volitional power to 
sin, so far from being a defect, an impurity, an im- 

96 



Streams from Lebanon 97 

perfection, implies and is a high quality — not may 
it only be possessed by a being perfectly pure,. but 
it must be primordially possessed by a being meri- 
toriously pure!" 

The power to be perfect, and yet limited and free, 
makes it possible to step beyond the limits of that 
freedom. 

We are not so much concerned as to how sin 
entered this world, but we are mightily concerned 
as to what it is, and the nature of it, and what will 
become of us if we do not get rid of it before death. 
We do not know how sin originated among the 
angels, but we do know that temptation to man 
came from pre-existing evil without. The inspired 
Word gives us sufficient light for all practical pur- 
poses concerning the sin question. 

No act itself can be sin. Sin is not so much what 
we have done as what we are. It is not that God 
is after us to punish us for some wrong act, but He 
is after us to cure us of an awful disease. As no 
act in itself is sinful, the nature of the actor must 
enter into it to give it moral quality. On the other 
hand, sin may exist and make no manifestation in 
the outward life. 

In their 1903 students' edition of New Testa- 



98 Streams from Lebanon 

merit, Greek, page nine in lexicon, Westcott and 
Hort, on the word sin (Hamartia) say: "Nouns 
in -ma denote the dead result of the action of the 
verb, while those in -ia and -is denote the active 
principle." In other words, one set of words points 
to the overt act, while the other points to an invert 
state. Now, dear reader, God is not only able to 
sweep down the cobwebs of the soul, but He is able 
to kill the spider that made the webs. He will not 
only pardon you of your transgressions, but He will 
take out of your heart that which caused you to 
transgress. 

The dislodgement of the principle of sin from 
the heart is not very pleasant, but it is fine when 
it is over. It is like going to the dentist to have an 
aching tooth removed. Many are trying to doctor 
the soul with ointments, but they are not willing for 
the dread malady to be removed. This is a fatal 
error. 

John MacNeil of England, in his book, "The Spirit 
Filled Life," page 64, says : "A clean heart, then, 
does not mean sinlessness, the eradication of sin, 
that sin is taken out of us ; for though sin is taken 
out of the heart that is cleansed (for a clean heart 
must be clean!), yet the "flesh," the self life, re- 



Streams from Lebanon 99 

mains in the man, latent, if not patent,' ready to 
manifest itself.'' 

See what a contradiction of terms. It is like 
saying : "I am in New York, but at the same time 
I am in Florida. It is snowing, but the thermometer 
registers ninety in the shade." 

A person may as well talk of a healthy invalid, 
or an educated idiot, a living corpse, or a holy devil. 
As much sense in one as the other. The theory of a 
repressed, sinful nature is very gratifying to the 
Old Man of Sin, from the fact he hates crucifixion 
and death. The blood of Jesus Christ is the objec- 
tive cause and the only remedy for the removal of 
the sinful nature from the soul. 

Neither death, nor good works, nor growth, nor 
time can ever cure the soul's disease. Nothing but 
the blood! 

"The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth 
us from ALL sin." Cleansing removes sin in- 
wardly, and the soul is clear of it so the light of 
truth may shine clearly through it. 

To think that God has any plan by which He only 
cares to repress sin in the heart and not remove it, 
is to minify its moral turpitude, or limit the present 
efficacy of the blood. The heart cleansed has keener 



ioo Streams from Lebanon 

sensibilities as to right and wrong, also for the 
miseries and woes of others. The object of purity 
in the mind of God is not purity simply for its own 
sake, but the character that a pure heart produces. 
He spreads out the landscape of possibilities to the 
pure in heart. The negative side of holiness (a pure 
heart) is a fixed condition. There is no limit to 
the positive side. Removing sin is not our job, the 
Holy Spirit does that. Our business is to bring our 
heart to God and let Him sanctify it, then it is our 
business to perfect or live the holiness God has 
given us. That we can serve God in holiness ALL 
THE DAYS OF OUR LIFE, is a blessed reality 
and a glorious privilege for the child of God. Plunge 
into the fountain and let Him cleanse your heart 
from all sin, and enjoy it while you live here in this 
world. 

But how am I to get this clean heart ? Peter an- 
swers, "Cleansing their hearts by faith" (Acts 15 '.9). 
Cleansing is God's work, and the condition on which 
God will do His work is "faith" on our part. There 
is only one way of getting anything from God, and 
that is by faith. One obtains forgiveness and the 
new birth by faith, and one obtains cleansing of the 



Streams from Lebanon ioi 

heart by faith, too. You may, you will, get "cleans- 
ing" the moment you definitely trust Christ for it. 

When the housewife cleans the house, does she 
then go out and live in the yard? Not so. She 
cleans the house that it may be the more fit for her 
to inhabit. God cleanses, "empties, sweeps and 
garnishes" (Matt. 12:44), that He may come in to 
dwell ; and if He, the Holy One, does come in and 
take up His abode, He will keep His dwelling place 
"clean." 

Not only will He keep one clean, but He will fill 
the heart with His love and abide there forever. 

This brings me to the consideration of the posi- 
tive aspect of the subject : To be filled. 

"He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath 
said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. 
But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that 
believed on Him were to receive : for the Spirit was 
not yet given ; because Jesus was not yet glorified" 
(John 7:38, 39). One may ask, what is it to be 
"filled with the Spirit?" The Teacher Himself 
makes answer : It is to have "rivers of living water 
flowing" from one's soul. See the universality 
of the promise, "He that believeth on Me ;" no 
believer, even the weakest, obscurest^ is outside 



102 Streams from Lebanon 

its magnificent sweep, unless by his unbelief he 
puts himself there. 

Notice this promise was not for sinners, but for 
them that believed on Him. 

This promise is for yon. Has it then been veri- 
fied in your life and experience? If not, why not? 
Is there not a cause? But note more closely its 
hugeness, its Godlike vastness, "Rivers !" not a trick- 
let, or a babbling brook — by its babbling proclaiming 
its shallowness — or a stream, or a river, but Rivers ! 

Of course this is figurative, but just think of a 
Niagara, an Ohio, a Mississippi, all flowing at the 
same time. 

Think of the vast possibilities of grace and the 
gracious promises God has given us. Here is where 
we fail, in that we do not press the GREAT PROM- 
ISES on the people. 

When Peter and John came to the Samaritans, 
and found that they were really turned to God, their 
first concern was to get them filled with the Holy 
Ghost (Acts 8:15). When Ananias came to the 
newly converted Saul of Tarsus, his first word was, 
"Jesus * * * hath sent me, that thou mayest 
* * * be filled with the Holy Ghost" (Acts 
9:17). When Paul found certain disciples at Ephe- 



Streams from Lebanon 103 

sus, his first business with them was to find out if 
they had "received the Holy Ghost" (Acts 19:2). 

These early teachers did not wait for a few months 
or years till the young converts had become dis- 
heartened, before they told them of the wonderful 
grace, but went right after them as soon as they 
heard of their faith, neither did they wait until the 
novices had become more established or more fully 
instructed in the things of God ; but straightway, at 
once, they introduced them to Fullness of blessing, 
taught them the open secret of the overcoming, ever- 
victorious life, and they did not leave them until the 
secret was their very own. Has modern practice 
been in accord with apostolic practice in this respect ? 
The only possible answer is in the negative. Have 
we improved then on the apostolic method ? Scarcely. 

But our modern method is very largely respon- 
sible for the large percentage of backsliding that one 
meets with in the Church to-day. Many of these 
backsliders were soundly converted to God, but un- 
fortunately for them, no Peter or John, no Ananias 
or Paul, met them in the beginning of their Pilgrim- 
age to compel their attention to the "one thing 
needful" for the people of the Pilgrimage ; so they 
started out but ill provided, and after a longer or 



104 Streams from Lebanon 

shorter time they became thoroughly dispirited ; and 
then asking, "Is this all that is in it?" they threw 
their profession overboard; and one can scarcely 
wonder at it. Prevention is better than cure. Let 
our young converts be fully instructed and fully 
equipped with the glorious Fullness provided for 
them by the gracious Father, and we will hear less 
about backsliding. Do you know why Peter and 
John, Ananias and Paul, spake of the Fullness of 
the Spirit? Because they possessed and enjoyed the 
blessing themselves, and they could not but speak 
of the blessing that had done so much for them. 

Let us go and do likewise. Let us lose no time in 
pressing believers on to full sanctification. The 
eradication of all sin on the one hand, and the filling 
of the Ploly Spirit on the other, and then we will 
have more living examples on earth, SERVING 
GOD IN HOLINESS. This is the PROMISE of 
God to His children, confirmed by an oath. 

"As He spake by the mouth of His holy prophets, 
which have been since the world began: that we 
should be saved from our enemies, and from the 
hand of all that hate us; to perform the mercy 
promised to our fathers, and to remember His holy 
covenant; the oath which He sware to our father 



Streams from Lebanon 105 

Abraham, that He would grant unto us, that we, 
being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, 
might serve Him without fear, in holiness and right- 
eousness before Him, all the days of our life," Luke 
1 70-75. 



HINDRANCES TO PRAYER. 

"That your prayers be not hindered" (i Peter 

3 7). 

I want to speak to the people seeking the Lord. 
My subject is "Hindrances to Prayer." I want God 
to hear me when I pray. Let us look into the sub- 
ject, "That your prayers be not hindered." Accord- 
ing to this text, there are some hindrances to prayer. 
The word hinder in the Greek is "ekkoptoo," which 
means to cut off, swerve to one side, intercept, etc. 
There are many people who pray, but their prayers 
do not get to Heaven, for there is such a thing as a 
man praying and not being heard in Heaven. The 
first class of people whom God will not hear, you 
will find mentioned in the fifty-ninth chapter of 
Isaiah and the second verse, "But your iniquities 
have separated between you and your God, and 
your sins have hid his face from you, that he will 
not hear" 

God will never hear a man until he quits sinning. 
A sinner God will not hear when he makes no prep- 
aration to quit. A penitent God will hear. "Let the 

106 



Streams from Lebanon 107 

wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man 
his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and 
he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for 
he will abundantly pardon." So, if you are living 
in sin, if you are going to keep at it, God will not 
hear you. 

Psalm 66:18, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, 
the Lord will not hear me." If I get down to pray, 
and recognize something in my soul that will not 
obey, something in my soul causing me to fall and 
not get the victory, God will not hear my prayer. 
If you are passing as a Christian, and down in your 
soul you are confident of something that is not 
victory, and do not want God to take it out, God 
will not hear your prayer. No man can fight holiness 
and keep saved. I am glad that God can take sin 
out of the heart and give us perfect victory. Rest 
yourselves in God's hands. He will give you vic- 
tory. You may have to part with some of your 
idols, but it will pay you. 

In Proverbs 28 :o, we are told that "He that turneth 
away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer 
shall be an abomination" What we need in this 
country is preaching on the law. Let us pull out the 
mud sills, and build from the ground an experience 



io8 Streams from Lebanon 

which will cause us, when our heads are pressing the 
dying pillow, to have Heaven and angels around us. 
If you love Jesus, you will hug the collar and pull; 
you will walk in the light as God is in the light. If 
there are no holiness folks around, and you are 
away out on picket duty in some lonely place, you 
will pull just the same. In a holiness meeting they 
may plow you up, cross-harrow your posy beds, but 
you get a good stirring up and you will grow good. 
We read in the Word of a class of people whom 
God will hear. "The Lord is nigh unto all them that 
call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth/' 
Some people come to the altar, but when God puts 
His finger on some sore spot they get up; but the 
man who takes sides against himself and says 
"search me," will get victory. There is nothing that 
makes you free but truth. It takes backbone, green- 
backs, blood and muscle to be true to your con- 
victions at times ; do not let any one pat you on the 
back, but take sides against yourself. "As ye have 
received Christ Jesus, so walk ye in him." How 
did you receive Him? With your head down in the 
straw ; you knew that you were no good. Too many 
people get puffed up. Pay the price, exercise faith, 
and receive. He will fulfill the desires of your 



Streams from Lebanon 109 

heart. When a man or woman fears God and goes 
with Him regardless of what men may say, God will 
hear every time. 

"And whatsoever me ask, we receive of Him, be- 
cause we keep His commandments and do those 
things which are pleasing in His sight." Are we 
keeping His commandments? God's command- 
ments are not grievous. You will <c do those things 
which are pleasing in His sight" When a man or 
woman does not have his or her prayers answered, 
there is something the matter. Seek the Lord with 
all your heart, either to be saved or sanctified, and 
He will be found. You will run up against some- 
thing, some idol, the apple of your eye ; but say "yes" 
to God and He will answer your prayer. You can 
keep the commandments if you will. "And this is 
the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask 
anything according to His will, He heareth us; and 
if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we 
know that we have the petitions that we desired of 
Him." Are you in His will, running on His time 
table? If you are, you will be on time at every 
station. 

Everything you get from God comes by faith; 
you are saved by faith; sanctified by faith; healed 



no Streams from Lebanon 

by faith; and "this is the victory that overcometh 
the world, even our faith." This is the principle 
to go on all the time. Faith must be contended for. 
The devil will contend for every inch of ground. 
This old world is run on faith. Farmers plant the 
seed and wait for the crops. We have faith in one 
another. We have faith that the food we eat is 
not poisoned, that the bed we sleep on will not fall 
down; we have faith in the railroad company that 
the little piece of pasteboard will carry us where we 
want to go. In the commercial world there is faith ; 
and the children of the world put to shame the 
children of God. 

"Ask and receive." It is one thing to ask ; another 
to receive. Some people are continually asking, 
never receiving. "For ye have need of patience, that, 
after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive 
the promise." What would you think of a man who 
would go to the station and buy a ticket for home, 
go into the car, take a seat, look up and find the car 
not moving, and then run out and jump off? Get 
on God's promises and stay on; do not jump off. 
You might buy your ticket, and go sit down in the 
station, but if you fail to go on board, the train will 
pull out and leave you. When you do God's will 



Streams from Lebanon in 

and meet His conditions, let God make the next 
move. If I hand this book to Brother Williams, he 
will fail to receive it unless he takes it. He might 
say, "I want to feel the book before I take it" ; but 
as he takes hold of the book he feels it. Here is a 
man freezing to death in the street. You open your 
door and invite him in. You say, "Come in, or you 
will freeze to death." It is a serious thing and it is 
life or death with him. He says, "Well if I could 
feel the heat, I would come in." As he comes into 
the house, he will feel the heat. We read of some 
men that met Jesus ; they were lepers and cried out 
for mercy ; and as they went, they were healed. You 
want to know how to be sanctified? Act your faith. 
Here is a man in the penitentiary. The warden 
brings him a pardon ; he leads him out of the cell, 
takes off his stripes, and puts on citizen's clothes. 
The man says, "I don't feel that I am free." "Why, 
here are the papers." "I can hardly believe it." 
The warden opens the gate and tells him to go. "I 
want to know that I am free; if I could feel that 
sun shining out there, I might believe it." He will 
never feel it until he walks out. As he goes out and 
begins to look around, he feels free. There was an 
old colored woman back in the mountains in slavery, 



112 Streams from Lebanon 

and some one told her that her people were set free. 
Immediately she said, "I takes it right now," and off 
she went, and she had it. Jesus has victory for you; 
take it now. A dyspeptic will never see anything 
good to eat. "Ask and receive, that your joy may be 
full" Ask Him to sanctify you, believe Him to do 
it, and do not doubt. You can receive the blessing 
while I am preaching. The man at sea, in order to 
get his latitude and longitude, does not go and look 
at the thermometer. He goes and looks at the com- 
pass, and then at the sun, moon and stars, and can 
tell just exactly where he is. Suppose he looks at 
the needle and there are no stars, no moon ; shall he 
jump off? No, let him stay on board, the engines 
are working, the ship is headed the same way as 
when she started. In your Christian life the devil 
comes along and throws his black wing over you ; 
the moon and the stars may not be seen ; wait a little 
while; do not jump off; it will clear up and the 
heavens will be seen and you will know just where 
you are. God's compass reads, "I will never leave 
you nor forsake you." "God is able to make all 
grace abound towards you; that ye always, having 
all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every 
good work" The heavens may be brass, Jesus not 



Streams from Lebanon 113 

in sight; you think God has gone out of business. 
The devil says, "Now, you do not feel as though you 
were sanctified." You stay on board and keep 
cheerful. 

Remember the story of Mephibosheth. David 
said, Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, 
that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? 
"Yes, Mephibosheth lives down the creek in Lode- 
bar" — short pasture. His little hut stood in the 
weeds and cornstalks; and I imagine the roof was 
almost in and had a stick chimney. David sent a 
servant down in a hurry. I can see him as he speeds 
down the road. Ziba calls, "Hello." The clapboard 
door shifts ajar, and Ziba says, "David, the king, 
told me to come down and get you." Mephibosheth 
says, "What have I done?" "Come on, the king 
wants you." Poor man, he had lived on onions and 
corn bread ; never had a ride in a carriage, never 
had feathers to sleep on. But he now sits down in 
ease and he says, "Am I dreaming?" Here they go 
away to the king's palace. Here are acres of 
ground, fountains playing, everything the heart 
could desire. The servant drives up. David comes 
out. "Poor fellow ! Take him upstairs, give him 
a bath and put a new suit of clothes on him." 



H4 Streams from Lebanon 

Imagine how Mephibosheth feels. They take him 
down to dinner. The king says, "Let him sit oppo- 
site me at the table ; he can sit there all the days of 
his life." And again David says, "I will clothe and 
feed him for Jonathan's sake." Would you advise 
Mephibosheth to leave home ? When he goes down 
the road, he meets a man with an old coat and hat 
on from Lodebar who says to Mephibosheth, "I 
would not stay at that big house if I were you." Do 
you think he would go back to Lodebar? Do you 
remember when you were down in sin, how the 
blessed Holy Ghost came to your door? You said 
you were not fit to go to the King's house. He said, 
"I know, but for Jesus' sake." I shall never forget 
when I went to the King's house; He washed me 
with the water of regeneration, and put a new robe 
on me. I did not know how to act. I had never been 
with Christians before. When I came out to the 
loaded table, I could hardly eat. For Jesus' sake it 
was done for me. I should hate to disappoint my 
Father by not living right after He had done all 
that for me. I should be ashamed to go about 
dressed in the tattered garments of sin. I want to 
act like a Christian, and live as I would live at the 
King's house. I have servants at my command; 



Streams from Lebanon 115 

all the spending money I want ; all my needs sup- 
plied. I walk into the bank and say, "I want to 
have this check cashed." Jesus meets me, takes me 
up to his Father and says, "This man is not worth 
anything but here is My name on the check." Would 
I not have faith in that kind of a God? Let us act 
as though we believed in Him. 

Do not go dragging around as if you were poor 
and had no friends. Go through the world with the 
tread of a conqueror. Suppose my father or mother 
wanted to give me a present, and I should not take 
it; it would grieve them. Our heavenly Father 
wants to give us everything we need. "Well, I 
know — " but hesitation grieves Him; instead, say, 
"All right, thank you, Father." Let us act as 
though we belong to the King, — act your faith. 



WHAT IS MAN? 
Psalm. 8:4. 
It takes a MAN : 
To be true to God. 
To love his enemies. 
To return good for evil. 
To go back and begin over. 
To apologize for a mistake. 
To forgive and forget wrongs. 
To stem the tide and go up stream. 
To take a dose of his own medicine. 
To acknowledge wherever he is wrong. 
To practice what he preaches to others. 
To keep going when he is misunderstood. 
To live within the bounds of his income. 
To keep sweet when others contradict him. 
To take the spoiling of his goods joyfully. 
To make the best of whatever he has to hand. 
To be as good as his word, let it cost what it will. 
To take gladly the advice of others his superiors. 
To pay promptly all subscriptions for holiness 
papers. 

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Streams from Lebanon 117 

To love the praise of God more than the praise 
of men. 

To go and hold a meeting when no remuneration 
is in sight. 

To grant the same liberty of conscience he de- 
mands to others. 

To see that the evangelist is paid if he has to do 
it himself. 

To pay all the subscription he signed at the mis- 
sionary meeting. 

To write the publishing house or evangelist and 
tell them he will pay for those books he bought and 
did not pay for. Selah. 



WHAT HE IS TO US. 

i. I am the way ; walk in me. 

2. I am the truth ; believe in me. 

3. I am the life ; live in me. — Jesus. 

HOW CHRISTIANS WALK. 

1. In newness of life. Rom. vi, 4. 

2. By faith. 2 Cor. v, 7. 

3. After the Spirit. Rom. viii, 1. 

4. In good works. Eph. ii, 10. 

5. Worthy of the Lord. Col. i, 10. 

6. Worthy of the vocation. Eph. iv, 1. 

7. In love. Eph. v, 2. 

8. In wisdom. Col. iv, 5. 

9. In peace. 2 Tim. ii, 22. 

10. Soberly, righteously and godly. Tit. ii, 12. 

WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

i. That Jesus is the Christ. Matt, i, 16. 

2. That He saves His people from their sins. 
Matt, i, 21. 

3. That His blood cleanseth from all sin. 1 John 

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Streams from Lebanon 119 

4. That He sanctifies His people. Heb. xiii, 12, 

13. 

5. That He has all power. Matt, xxviii, 18. 

6. That He is able to destroy the works of the 
devil. 1 John iii, 8. 

7. That He is able to save to the uttermost. Heb. 
vii, 25. 

8. That He is able to make us stand. Rom. xiv, 

4- 

9. That He is able to keep us from falling. Jude 
24. 

10. That He is able to make all grace abound. 2 
Cor. ix, 8. 

11. That He is able to subdue all things. Phil, 
iii, 21. 

12. That He is able to perform what He has 
promised. Rom. iv, 21. 

13. That He is able to do above all we ask or 
think. Eph. iii, 20. 

14. That He is coming again. Acts 1, II. 
Thess. v, 20. 



120 Streams from Lebanon 

THE WAY CHRISTIANS LIVE. 

1. In constant joy. I Thess. v, 16-22. 

2. In constant prayer. 1 Thess. v, 17. 

3. In constant thanksgiving. 1 Thess. v, 18. 

4. In constant response to the Holy Spirit. 1 
Thess. v, 19. 

5. In constant attention to testimony. 1 Thess. 
v, 19. 

6. In constant search for good. 1 Thess. v, 21. 

7. In constant purity. 1 Thess. v, 22. 

8. They look diligently. Heb. xi, 15. 

9. Wait patiently. Psa. xl, 1. 

10. Stand continually. Isa. xxi, 8. 

11. Walk humbly. Micah vi, 8. 

12. Run well. Gal. v, 7. 

13. Provide honestly. Rom. xii, 17. 

14. They live sober in mind. 1 Pet. i, 13. 

15. Holy in character. 1 Pet. i, 15, 16. 

16. Pitiful in spirit. 1 Pet. iii, 8. 

17. Courteous in manner. 1 Pet. iii, 8. 

18. Ready in testimony. 1 Pet. iii, 15. 

19. Watchful in prayer. 1 Pet. iv, 7. 

20. Humble in soul. 1 Pet. v, 8. 

21. Diligent in service. 2 Pet. iii, 14. 

22. Ready to be revealed at any time. 1 Pet. 1, 5. 



SCENES ALONG THE WAY. 

After about thirty-six hours of tiresome, dusty 
travel on slow trains, with bad connections, I arrived 
at Fort Myers, Fla., tired and dirty, though happy 
and expectant of a good meeting. Hallelujah! 
Notwithstanding the long and tedious journey, we 
enjoyed the scenery along the way. Stretching out 
from us in every direction as far as the eye could 
see, it looked like a veritable paradise. The shin- 
ing trail of many rivers, and silvery lakes shimmer- 
ing in the sunlight on all sides of us, fairly danced 
for joy. Palmetto trees tossed their heads in the 
breezes and waved their palms at us as we glided by. 

Thousands of acres of scrub palm carpeting the 
face of the earth like a green sward, seemed to ask 
us to come out for a stroll beneath the sparsely 
towering pines and rest awhile. The scenery was 
broken here and there with magnificent orange 
groves lifting their heads in the dying summer sun, 
their golden fruit gleaming among the beautiful 
green leaves. 

One sees on every side mirrored in this great 

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122 Streams from Lebanon 

masterpiece of the Divine artist, fantastic visions of 
rock and ferns, wild flowers and trees and floating 
clouds, with a blue sky for a background. The shin- 
ing texture of blade and leaf, the dreamy haze in 
distant air, hung like a gossamer veil, with songs of 
warbling birds exultant, plaintive and sweet, all 
seem to enchant the passer-by, and invite him to 
linger behind and wait for a season. 

How the heart goes out to God in gratitude for 
this beautiful world. A sigh, a choking heart, tears 
flowing down my cheeks, all tell me that God is 
speaking to the soul within. What a tremendous 
strain on these old bodies of ours, when God sweeps 
the harp strings of the soul. There is a mighty pull 
heavenward and the earth beams seem to almost 
give away. 

What a combination! A tabernacle of clay 
hooked up to the mighty inbreathings of Jehovah! 
Be content with earthen cage for awhile, thou im- 
mortal breath of God, and some sweet day thou 
shalt plume thy wings and be off to thine everlasting 
home. 

As we stop to take water away out here in this 
labyrinth of beauty, we alight from the train to take 
in the view. The languid air seems drowsy with 



Streams from Lebanon 123 

the odor of wild flowers and pine. The far-away 
whispering pines rocking in perfect rhythm are 
speaking with voices dreamily and low and tell of 
nature's undisturbed and perfect rest ; like sentinels 
on some lonely picket beat they stand guard through 
the years. 

How we long for a walk through this pathless 
forest alone with God, but hark! the clank of the 
water-spout is heard yonder as the fireman throws 
it up, the bell begins to ring and we reluctantly 
break away from this enchanting scene, and climb 
aboard as the panting engine pulls out and pushes 
on to its destination with its load of human freight. 
On we go. And so through life, time and duty call 
us on. 

There are battles to be fought, hard marches to 
be made, dark days of testing and trial to go 
through, but through it all we see the silver lining 
of the cloud. Thank God for rifted clouds! an 
unveiled universe, with trembling stars of hope in 
full view. Faith dips her wings in the ocean of 
God's love and sprinkles afresh our ground of hope, 
and we push on. The eye of faith sees clearer now 
since the angel of God's love has kissed away the 
tears of gratitude, mingled with joy and sorrow. 



124 Streams from Lebanon 

Suddenly I awake as if from a dream, and we are 
now dashing over the Caloosahatchee River, with 
its acres of beautiful blooming "river hyacinths." 
An army of blackbirds scatter in all directions and 
blend in one harmonious din the song that is pecul- 
iarly their own. One long blast from the engine's 
whistle, and the trainmen call out Fort Myers. 

As we step down off the car, Brother Robert 
Henderson smiles and gives us a hearty welcome 
with a warm handshake, and here is Brother Wilder, 
of Wilmore, Ky., who has come to be with us in 
the meeting. Soon we are safely housed in Brother 
Henderson's good home. Soap, water, towel, sup- 
per, and we are off to the Holiness meeting, preach- 
ing to a small, but appreciative audience. 



NATURE'S REVELATION. 

"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the 
firmament sheweth his handy work." Psalms 19:1. 

How awe-inspiring and sublime the open heavens 
above us. 

Who has never stood and meditated on the good- 
ness of God as they gazed into the open heavens 
and beheld the sombre beauty of the jeweled night? 
With gaze steadily fixed we have thought myriads 
of systems may lie beyond the galaxy, and who 
knows but that some sweet day we may walk their 
shining orbs and praise our God in the language of 
other spheres? How often thus contemplating 
God's goodness, has the sigh, the heaving of the 
chest, the choking sensation of the throat, and the 
tears in the eyes told us that God was speaking to 
the soul within. 

Then who has never witnessed the setting of the 
dying summer's sun? From his disc ten thousand 
silver shafts pierce the hazy clouds on the one hand, 
and shoot out into the broad bending arch of blue on 
the other, while they kiss the angry thunder-heads 

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126 Streams from Lebanon 

boiling into anarchy in the distance, and tissue them 
with emerald and fire, until they stand out like the 
battlemented walls of some fairy city. As the twi- 
light deepens a steady rain of splendors is showered 
on every side until his parting beams fling a jeweled 
cresent on the wings of night. 

"The firmament sheweth His handywork." Who 
has never clambered up some mountain summit and 
sat down in nature's lap and viewed the waving 
forests, dancing cascades, shining rivers, with fan- 
tastic visions of rock, and ferns, wild flowers and 
trees and floating clouds ; where the shining texture 
of leaf and blade weave a gossamer that hangs like 
a veil in the dreamy haze ? 

The soul that walks with God can see Him every- 
where from the fact the firmament sheweth His 
handywork. 

To that soul all nature is pouring forth one vast 
volume of praise to God. Oh nature! Thou 
rapturous passion-laden voice of God. There is no 
speech nor language where thy voice is not heard. 
Thy line is gone out through all the earth, and thy 
words to the end of the world. If I take the wings 
of the morning and fly away to the busy marts of 
the crowded cities thou art there. Mid the teeming 



Streams from Lebanon 127 

millions on jostling thoroughfare surrounded by 
rumbling street cars, humming mills, and flying 
spindles ; out from this great roar and din thou art 
speaking to me of God. If I hunt some secluded 
dell which thou hast screened off from the world I 
hear thy voice in the murmuring song of the brook 
as it glides on to some distant river or lake. Caught 
away to the dizzy height of some mountain, push- 
ing its head above the fleecy clouds into the blue 
vaulted dome of heaven, I hear the soft whisper of 
thy voice there, telling me of an omnipotent God. 
If I listen to the roaring breakers dashing against 
some far away rock bound coast, splashing their 
spray on sands of gold, I hear thy sweet voice like 
the distant mellow tone of ten thousand harps, sing- 
ing of the God of my salvation. "Truly the invis- 
ible things of Him from the creation of the world 
are clearly seen, being understood by the things that 
are made." 



TEMPTATION. 

Our perceptions, desires and wills make it pos- 
sible for temptation to have three stages. 

The perceptions may be addressed through any 
one of the five senses, or through the imagination 
and memory. 

We hear or see, or the imagination may present 
or the memory recall, some object towards which 
the evil one would draw the mind or the affections 
in an unlawful way. At this point is the red lamp 
of danger. If the ear is allowed to continue to 
hear, or the eye to see, that evil against which we 
have power to close them; or if we allow the mind 
through the memory or imagination to revel amid 
sinful scenes, the desires are kindled and inflamed, 
and soon the will is in danger of being overpowered, 
and sin brought out in act. 

The first is like cotton threads, easily broken ; the 
second like cords, hard to break; and the third is 
like cart ropes, which bind and hold the victim fast. 

If any one would have continual victory and en- 
joy the hidden life with God, and to know what it 

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Streams from Lebanon 129 

is to enjoy the sweet communion with the abiding 
Holy Spirit, there must be a putting away of sinful 
thoughts. 

"As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." 
Many people lend their eyes and ears to things 
around them that are productive of much mischief 
and suggestive of evil, until the imagination creates 
for itself an inner ideal world of impurity. 
Is thy heart right? 



THE TRAGEDY OF THE CROSS. 

Credit Given to Benj. Pomeroy for Subject and 
Outline. 

"Father the hour is come." John xvii, i. These 
are the words uttered by the Son of God in His 
valedictory prayer just prior to His ascension. The 
final hour has come. The crisis is at hand. The 
conflict for which Christ came into the world is at 
the door. A conflict between sin and penalty — life 
and death, Heaven and Hell. A conflict in which 
are marshalled all the antagonisms of the universe. 
A conflict involving the eternal throne — the per- 
petuity of God's kingdom — the right of all departed 
saints to their present Heaven — the ratification of 
the doom of all sinners — the overflow of the domin- 
ions of death — the subjugation of the powers of 
Hell and the eternal bliss of all believers. 

The lone part He is to take in this awful trag- 
edy is already forecasting shadows of gloom over 
His soul. His relations, natural and assumed, place 
Him in the challenged attitude of three worlds. 
This world is against Him, for He has testified to 

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Streams from Lebanon 131 

it that its deeds are evil. Hell is against Him, for 
it has been published from the garden of Eden that 
the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's 
head. Heaven must necessarily be against Him, for 
He has assumed the sinner's condition and punish- 
ment, taking the scaffold for a world of sinners 
lost ; hence He must be dealt with as a sinner. 

How the infinitudes crowd into this hour. It 
seems from the very tone of this prayer that at this 
time Christ is preparing Himself for the worst. I 
imagine I can see Him as He kneels in prayer, look- 
ing back over the battlemented walls of Heaven to 
His native home, as if to cheer His soul by visions 
of glory which He had with the Father before the 
world was, before entering the dark gloom which is 
already casting its deathly chill on His soul. Then 
glancing along down the coming ages He is sum- 
ming up His inheritance in His heathen and Gentile 
converts, surveying the isles of the sea and the out- 
posts of death's dominions as His final possessions, 
setting the joy before Him that He may endure the 
cross, despise the shame and sit down on the right 
hand of the throne of God on high. 

The first thing that I want to call your attention 



132 Streams from Lebanon 

to in the text is the extreme impoverishment of this 
hour. 

It is a long road from a throne to a manger ; from 
riches to extreme poverty; from creating worlds 
out of nothing to being an infant in a stable. Isaiah 
had foretold the manner of His coming eight hun- 
dred years before, and here we find Him running 
God's time-table, on time and pushing on to finish 
the work for which He had come into the world. 
At the full bloom of manhood, the very time when 
He should have the greatest influence and following, 
He seems to go into total eclipse on the cross as the 
greatest failure the world had ever known. 

See Him as He stands before Pilate's court; 
homeless, friendless, penniless. This is the best 
pledge an infinite God can give after a promise of 
four thousand years standing, to accept of this 
grown-up child in their midst, bloody, dusty, with 
mock robes, a false scepter in hand and a following 
of a few illiterate fishermen and women. It is no 
wonder hope grows faint in the kingdom of God 
and Hell takes on new courage. Here He stands as 
though He had no virtue and no honor, with dis- 
ciples fleeing and friends gone; and amidst the 
mockings and jeerings of a Jerusalem mob He is 



Streams from Lebanon 133 

marched through the city. They spit on Him and 
beat Him with clubs until blood runs down into His 
sandals. They clamor for His blood and demand 
the release of Barabbas. 

He touches the ignominy so deeply as to well nigh 
touch Hell itself when He consents to die between 
two thieves on the cross. My God! Behold the 
man! Brethren, this is what He did for you and 
me. Bless His precious name ! 

He who could say, "let there be light," consents 
to awful darkness. He who owned the world, now 
says "the foxes have holes and the birds of the air 
have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to 
lay His head." He who by mere volition could pet- 
rify the storm and make the waves lay down and 
be still, who could set the old world rocking with 
spasms of earthquakes, unstop the deaf ears, open 
the eyes of the blind, raise the dead and stop a 
funeral procession by raising the corpse to life, now 
consents to die an ignominious death between two 
thieves. 

But the mystery is that a Being of such almighti- 
ness should go forth to conquest in a spirit of love. 
Passing in meekness and lowliness through the spit- 
tings and smitings of an infuriated mob, bearing 



134 Streams from Lebanon 

mock robes of royalty, hooted at and spit upon, that 
He should stay back the enginery of ruin, unclothe 
His arm of terrible thunder down to naked love, 
and step out in the cross trade-winds of three 
worlds, and meet and match the nursed hate of Hell 
of four thousand years standing, and hush it eter- 
nally dumb ; I say here is the great mystery of the 
ages. 

The second thing I want to call your attention to 
is that this hour marked the culmination of moral 
conflicts. 

Jesus' coming to this world was not the bursting 
forth of some unlooked for event. It had been pub- 
lished down the ages. Nor did He choose the easy 
way. He chose the thorny way through hostile 
regions where devils with shield and buckler were 
on the watch. The command all along down the 
line was to keep a watchout for the oncoming 
Messiah. The devil had preached a God of hate, 
and had told how God had drowned the world with 
water and opened the ground and had swallowed 
up folks until the bleaching bones of generations 
seemed to witness against God, and it looked like 
hope was gone. The devil and his satellites had un- 
bounded ingress and egress to this old world, while 



Streams from Lebanon 135 

God had only spoken a few times in dreams or 
through angels, and for four hundred years Heaven 
had been sealed entirely. The communication be- 
tween the colony and the mother country had 
been dubious and doubtful. Opposition had ral- 
lied all along down the line to meet the aggressor 
upon Death's empire. 

All this educated prejudice, inspired hate, and de- 
ferred hope against the oncoming Messiah made it 
intensely interesting at this time. The clash is 
about to come. The clash that is to change the 
tense of hope, the tense of faith, wheel future into 
the past, and to burden all the types and shadows 
of the Old Testament with new meaning, and to 
redouble the doom of Hell. 

Again, I want to call your attention to the fact 
that this hour marks an hour of suffering — extreme 
suffering. 

When Christ knelt in the Garden of Gethsemane 
and prayed, He tasted death for every man. The 
pains of Hell got hold of Him. Luke says that He 
sweat great drops of blood. In the finishing of that 
prayer He cries out in the agony of His soul, 
"Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass; never- 
theless not my will but Thine be done" Here was 



136 Streams from Lebanon 

fought a greater battle than Napoleon Bonaparte 
ever witnessed. Alexander the Great would be a 
stranger to a battle like this. All the suffering that 
sin ever brought in this old world laid hold of the 
Son of God in this hour. Here is where Divinity 
suffers. He says, "My soul is exceedingly sorrow- 
ful even unto death." He comes to His disciples 
and they are sleepy and drowsy. He goes and 
prays again and returns to find them sleeping, and 
He says "sleep on." After He prays the last time 
an angel comes from Heaven and strengthens Him. 

Now His Divinity has suffered, but there is yet 
the test to come when His humanity shall go through 
the struggle that Hell is expecting will bring failure 
on His part. And in the negative answer of the 
question, "Can He go through it?" lies Hell's last 
hope. 

I see Jesus as He goes up the road yonder, and 
passes on through the rabble bearing His cross. He 
reaches the place and drops it down; they place 
Him upon it; they put spikes through His hands 
and the blood gushes forth, but He utters not a 
word. They strike the spikes through His feet; 
they raise that cross and drop it into a hole in the 
ground with a thud. Not a word of complaint 



Streams from Lebanon 137 

escapes those blessed lips; He only says, "Father, 
forgive them for they know not what they do." 
There He hangs, and they go marching by mocking, 
and wagging their heads, and dare Him to come 
down; "You saved others, yourself you cannot 
save." You raised people from the dead, you opened 
the eyes of the blind, you made the deaf to hear and 
the dumb to speak, but you cannot save yourself. 
They give Him vinegar to drink when He thirsts, 
and say, "If you are the Son of God, come down 
from the cross." This is now the best pledge that 
God can give. They tell Him He is nothing but 
Joseph the carpenter's son, that He called Himself 
the Son of God, and mockingly they bid Him come 
down from the cross. This is the Christ, our 
Savior. 

It is no wonder that Hell was watching with an 
expectation of victory. They finally strip the robe 
from Him, and nude, He hangs in the presence of 
three worlds, as though He had no friends, no home 
and no one to help Him. "He came unto His own 
and His own received Him not." There He hangs ; 
the best pledge that God can give, and the world 
has been wrapped in darkness and pain. It is no 
wonder that Hell became jubilant. He hangs there 



138 Streams from Lebanon 

for three hours upon the cross and He utters seven 
truths ; when He comes to that last utterance, "It is 
finished/' He gives up the ghost. Then this old 
world becomes dark. The graves begin to open, 
and God the Father and the angels veil their faces 
because they cannot look upon Him. When He 
cried, "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken 
Me?" He is taking the sinner's place, and God 
reverently covers His face and stops His ears in 
order not to hear the cry of His only Son, His blessed 
child. Oh, the pain and suffering of that hour ! 

I believe it is Dr. Talmage who tells the incident 
of how, on a dark, tempestuous night, a ship on the 
ocean had a broken rudder and sailor after sailor 
had been swept off, one by one, into the sea ; finally 
it was discovered that they were near the shore, and 
the captain said some one must climb up and place a 
lantern upon that broken spar — that was their only 
hope ; but no one would venture to do it, as it meant 
death. Finally the captain's little son said, "Father, 
I will go and place a light on that broken spar." 
His father told him it would mean death, but at last 
he consented, and sent the lad up, but after awhile 
he cried down through the darkness, "Father, I am 
afraid I will never reach the top," but his father said, 



Streams from Lebanon 139 

"Make one more effort and place the light there." 
He made the supreme effort, placed the light on the 
spar, and instantly a life-line was thrown from the 
shore and the vessel was saved, but the little boy 
was frozen to the spar. 

Do you not know that this old world was nearing 
the rocks and shores of eternal destruction, and God 
said somebody must make an effort to save it, some- 
body must climb that rugged cross and suspend the 
light of salvation to save it. No angel, cherubim or 
seraphim could do it ; but the Son of God, to whom 
the angels sang, "Thou art worthy to open the seals," 
said, "Father, I will go to yonder world and I will 
put a light on Calvary that will save the world." 
He left Heaven, left His Father's bosom, and came 
to this sin-cursed world, went up the rugged path 
to Calvary and swung out the light of full salvation, 
and God threw the rope of mercy across the dark 
sea of sin and we are saved. 

It was an hour of suffering ! Bleeding and dying 
He said, "My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" 
The last groan escaped Him ; the last twitch of the 
face, and He said, "It is finished." Now what hap- 
pens? Jerusalem lighted at midday with candles; 
the city wrapped in midnight darkness ; the rocks 
rending, the graves opening ; and the Roman soldiers 



140 Streams from Lebanon 

begin to say, "We believe this was the Son of God ; 
we are afraid He was the Son of God." Joseph 
comes up and begs His body ; they take Him down 
and wrap Him in some clean linen and bury Him in 
Joseph's new tomb. Then the devil says, "Our only 
hope lies in the fact that He will never rise again. ,, 
What do they do ? They roll a great stone over the 
mouth of the grave ; they place the seal of the Roman 
Government upon it, and place a Roman guard 
around it, and the devil and all Hell says, "He is a 
failure ; — this man who came and lived, and said He 
was the Son of God, and gathered a few illiterate 
fishermen and some women about Him, but now 
they have all fled." 

The disciples are scattered. As two of them went 
down to Emmaus they talked together of the things 
that had happened; and while they communed to- 
gether and reasoned, Jesus Himself drew near and 
went with them. They did not know Him ; they had 
been saying, "We thought this was the Son of God." 
As Jesus walked with them, He said, "What man- 
ner of communications are these that ye have one 
to another, as ye walk, and are sad?" And one of 
them said, "Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, 
and hast not known the things which are come to 



Streams from Lebanon 141 

pass there in these days?" And He asked, "What 
things?" and they tell Him concerning Jesus of 
Nazareth, which was a prophet, mighty in deed and 
word before God and all the people; and how the 
chief priests and rulers had delivered Him to be 
condemned to death, and they had crucified Him. 
That they had trusted that Jesus was He who should 
redeem Israel, and it was now the third day since 
this was done. As He went along with them, He 
began with Moses to expound unto them the Scrip- 
tures concerning Himself; and as they drew nigh 
the village, He made as though He would have gone 
farther, and they said, "Abide with us, it is tozvard 
evening, and the day is far spent/' and He tarried 
with them. Beloved, there will come a time in your 
life when you will want Jesus to abide with you. 

When Jesus Christ went into Joseph's new tomb, 
He knocked the bottom out of Hell, banged the 
gates down, wrenched the key out of the devil's 
hands, and went in and preached to the lost spirits. 
He conquered Hell. I want to tell you now that the 
spell has been broken ever since. Jesus did not beg 
His way back through the grave, nor did He beg 
His way back from the lost world. No sir, it was a 
determinate counsel'that planned His trip. He con- 



142 Streams from Lebanon 

quered death, Hell, and the grave ! For four thou- 
sand years all had been wrapped in mystery and 
darkness, and every devil recoiled as He went to the 
outposts of Hell with this text, "The seed of the 
woman shall bruise the serpent's head." I want to 
tell you that He was not forced to do it ; He did it 
of His own accord. 

After He went through the grave to the farther- 
most outposts of the lost world, He came back, but 
He left a light there that will never be put out. 
Glory to God ! He left a light there that will light 
the way through for you and for me. He came 
back in three days as He had foretold. The new 
tomb could not hold Him. An angel came down 
from Heaven and rolled the stone away; but I be- 
lieve Jesus had risen before the angel got there; I 
believe He got up before day, then the angel came 
down and rolled the stone away from the grave. I 
believe He was watching for the angel to come 
down, and saw him roll back the stone and sit upon 
it, and the keepers fell back like dead men. About 
that time God let slip a shock of resurrection pow- 
er that burst the bars of death and Jesus came 
out, and do you know, when He came back from the 
grave He split Paradise wide open, brought all the 



Streams from Lebanon 143 

Old Testament saints with Him, and John Wesley 
thinks He took that crowd with Him to Heaven. 
Heaven had been on tiptoe ever since Jesus had left 
there, the Father-heart of God yearning for His Son ; 
the angels wanted to come and help Him in His 
suffering. The angels desired to look into the mys- 
tery of the suffering of Him of whom it had been 
said, "He shall receive blessing from the Lord." 
This was the command : "Lift up your heads, ye 
gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and 
the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King 
of glory f The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord 
mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; 
even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King 
of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? 
The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory." 

So you see it was not only an hour of suffering, 
but it was an hour of glorious victory. Jesus Christ 
stepped out of the grave a conqueror over the world, 
death, and Hell ; also as the light and hope of every 
soul. 

When I get to glory I want to tell Him how much 
I love Him for what He did for me ; I want to feel 
the nail-prints in His hands that were made be- 
cause of His love for me. After He rose from 



144 Streams from Lebanon 

the grave He lived forty days in His resurrected 
body on this earth. A spirit does not have flesh 
and blood. He said to Thomas, "Put your fin- 
gers into the nail-prints in my hands, and thrust 
your hand into my side." He did that to leave 
no room for doubt that it was He in His resur- 
rected body. Beloved, I expect to have a resur- 
rected body like Jesus had. This body of mine, 
which has often been so tired and worn in meet- 
ings when I have tried to preach the Gospel; 
these knees that have helped me to get down and 
humble myself before God, Jesus says He will 
let me bring them along; and these feet which 
have been weary in doing errands for Him, will all 
be there. There will be no more pain there, no more 
tired lungs and weary bodies. I can well afford to 
go hungry, alone and tired now, in order to see Him 
v/ho has loved us and given Himself a ransom for 
us, whom we have not seen. Praise God ! "Your 
redemption draweth nigh." 

O bless God! When I view the terrible suf- 
ferings of the cross, the triple tragedy of Cal- 
vary, when I see Him die between two thieves, it 
breaks my heart. "He saved others, Himself He 
cannot save." May God help us this morning! O 



Streams from Lebanon 145 

that we might get a glimpse of Jesus in His love and 
mercy as we have never seen Him before ! He died 
for you and for me because He loved us. 

This life of Jesus has a counterpart in your life 
and mine. If you ever follow Jesus to Calvary, 
there will have to come an hour of humiliation, of 
impoverishment; an hour of suffering, an hour of 
separation from everything in this world. As He 
left His Father, you will have to leave your kindred ; 
as He left Heaven, you may have to say good-bye 
to home, if you follow Jesus. There must be an 
emptying out of everything, a separation from every- 
thing, you must choose poverty in order to become 
rich. You will have to say one everlasting "yes" 
away down in the depths of your soul. You will 
never question God again. There is no more cavil 
in your soul. As He was led like a sheep, dumb be- 
fore His shearers, you will be dumb to your friends 
and folks, if you follow Jesus all the way to Calvary. 
You will say, "Lord, it is sweet to follow thee." 
You will go with Him anywhere. Not only does it 
mean an hour of suffering in your life, but even unto 
death, — all the way to Calvary. 

It will not only be an hour of suffering in your 
life, but it will be an hour of glorious triumph. 



146 Streams from Lebanon 

There will be no more fault-finding with God's plans. 
You will follow Jesus all the way to Calvary and 
you will let your Methodist preacher, Baptist 
preacher, or Presbyterian preacher drive the nails 
to nail you to the cross ; you will let your own folks 
bring the vinegar and gall and give it to you ; every- 
thing will be dark around you, but He will give you 
grace ; you will never be alone anymore. Can you 
take this step, beloved? Are you going all the way 
to Calvary ? It will be sweet to meet with Jesus of 
Calvary. It will be sweet to meet with father, it 
will be sweet to meet with mother and loved ones. I 
wonder how many can say, "Brother Fergerson, I 
know what you have been talking about. I have 
made the consecration ; God has sanctified my soul." 
Stand up. All who will make the consecration ; all 
who will go with Jesus all the way to Calvary come 
to this altar. 

(Immediately the altar was crowded and for two 
hours there was weeping and praying, and many 
found the Christ who died for them.) 



A MERRY HEART. 

"A merry heart is a good medicine." (Prov. 17 .22 
margin.) From the abundance of the heart the 
mouth speaketh. The mouth and tongue with the 
lips, are an index to the heart. "He hath filled my 
mouth with laughter." God fills the mouth by first 
filling the heart. The religion of Jesus Christ dif- 
fers from other religions in that it begins with the 
heart. Here is the seat of all troubles and ailments 
of life. It is uphill business to try to live something 
we have not. When the heart is right the whole life 
will harmonize, both outward and inward. It is 
automatic, works both going and coming. What is 
in us will come out. My thoughts today become 
acts tomorrow, hence the importance of right think- 
ing. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." In 
the eternal fitness of things we naturally drift to 
the things we love. Show me what a man loves and 
I will show you what he is in his heart. We gravi- 
tate the way our thoughts run. 

"A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance." 

147 



148 Streams from Lebanon 

(Prov. 15:13.) "Jesus was anointed with the oil 
of gladness above His fellows/' (Heb. 1 :g.) 

"He that is of a merry heart hath a continual 
feast" (Prov. 15:15.) There is such a thing as 
having a merry heart, and not only that, but having 
it all the time. Hallelujah! A continual feast. 
Praise God for a well-loaded table all the time. If 
other folks have lost their appetites and are not 
spiritually hungry, I can't help that ; I am going on 
and eat and enjoy the continual feast. Glory ! 

Oh, for more cheerful countenances around our 
homes. "And when the Philistine looked about, and 
saw David, he disdained him; for he was but a 
youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance." (I 
Sam. 17:42.) How the devil hates folks who are 
brimming full of joy and sunshine. Notice David 
with his old-fashioned, backwoods experience of full 
salvation, face aglow with the shine of Heaven. He 
puts only one smooth stone in his sling and slays 
the giant at the first shot. It is true to this day. 
The bright faces of God's true Davids are meeting 
the enemies of God on every hand and slaying them 
unmercifully. This old sinful world cannot stand 
the shine of God in the countenance of His dear 
children. The joy of the Lord is their strength. 



Streams from Lebanon 149 

"For the Lord taketh pleasure in His people: He 
will beautify the meek with salvation/' (Psa. 
149:4.) The margin says, "He will beautify the 
meek with victory." That is, victory will be seen in 
their countenances. Thank God! If we have the 
victory, let us look like it. I say Glory ! Pass the 
sunshine along ! 



A POPULAR ERROR CORRECTED. 

One of the popular errors of the day concerning 
the doctrine of entire sanctification as a second work 
of grace subsequent to regeneration, is that before 
he died Mr. Wesley repudiated the doctrine. Dean 
Tillett, in his book, "Personal Salvation," says: 
"During the last twelve or fifteen years of his life 
John Wesley gave up all insistance upon instan- 
taneous sanctification," that he "quietly let it drop." 

This is the dodge the preachers take and in some 
parts of the country we find many well beaten paths 
leading to it. 

Now let us compare these errors with the historic 
fact, and writings of Mr. Wesley himself and see 
where we land. 

Mr. Wesley died March 2, 1791. Some think he 
changed his view in 1784, from the fact that in the 
abridgment of the Seventh Article of Religion he 
left out some words on the teaching of inbred sin. 
In 1785, six years before his death, he wrote to 
Rev. Freeborn Garretson : "It will be well as soon 
as any of them find peace with God to exhort them 

ISO 



Streams from Lebanon 151 

to 'go on to perfection.' The more explicitly and 
strongly you press all BELIEVERS to aspire after 
full sanctification as attainable now by simple faith, 
the more the whole work of God will prosper." 
(Vol. 7, page 184.) 

Sept. 15, 1790, just five months and seventeen 
days before his death, he wrote to Robert Carr 

Brackenburg, Esq.: "I am glad Brother D 

has more light with regard to full sanctification. 

"This doctrine is the grand depositum which God 
has lodged with the people called Methodists, and 
for the sake of propagating this chiefly he appears 
to have raised us up." (Vol. VII., page 153.) 

On Nov. 26, 1790, just three months and six days 
before his death, he wrote to Dr. Adam Clarke "To 
retain the grace of God is much more than to gain 
it ; hardly one in three does this. 

<r And this should be strongly and explicitly urged 
on all those who have tasted perfect love. If we 
can prove that any of our local preachers or leaders, 
either directly or indirectly speak against it, let him 
be a local preacher or leader no longer. I doubt 
whether he should continue in the society, because 
he that could speak thus in our congregation can- 
not be an honest man." (Vol. VII., page 206.) 



152 Streams from Lebanon 

In the evening of Feb. 27, 1791, only four days 
prior to his death, he said: "We must be justified 
by faith, and then GO ON TO FULL SANCTIFI- 
CATION." (See Stephen's History of Methodism, 
Vol. II, page 371.) 

In Tyerman's Life of Wesley, Vol. Ill, page 645, 
Wesley wrote to Rev. John Booth : "Whenever you 
have the opportunity of speaking to BELIEVERS, 
urge them to go on to perfection. Spare no pains, 
and God, even our God, will give you his blessing." 

Scholarly men of authority in either wing of 
Methodism, in their writings and church history 
have always interpreted Mr. Wesley's writings to 
the very day of his death, and have so understood 
them to teach none other doctrine than that Chris- 
tians are to go on to full sanctification and be made 
perfect in love in this life. 

It is too late in the day for modern Theologians 
as Huntington, Mudge, Tillett and others to reverse 
the teaching of the Church from Wesley's time to 
the present day. 

Amid the storm of unbelief and "Blasting at The 
Rock of Ages," and while the enemy comes in like 
a flood in doctrines of error as Christian Science, 
Unitarianism, Swedenborg doctrine, Telepathy, 



Streams from Lebanon 153 

Mind Science, Odylic Force, Spritualism, Second 
Probation, Black Arts, Clairvoyance, etc., etc., God 
is raising up a new crop and generation of Holiness 
Preachers, turning them out of our Holiness Col- 
leges with hearts filled with Perfect Love and heads 
filled with sense, and they are going to cut counter 
the modern teaching of the day and plank down the 
majestic imperial rock-ribbed character, and with the 
word of God will turn back the tide of unbelief and 
precipitate a great revival of Bible salvation that 
will overthrow false religions and puncture the 
bubbles of erroneous teaching. Amen! On with 
the revival of HOLINESS. 



POINTED PARAGRAPHS. 

If you come out at the little end of the horn you 
can "toot" it. 

God hangs blessings on the pegs of faith as fast 
as we drive them. 

The hindrance to holiness today is not great vice, 
but mean virtue. 

To preacherize the world is one thing, to Chris- 
tianize it quite another. 

The sorrow that stops short of right doing, is not, 
nor ever can be, true repentance. 

Nehemiah worked on the hill of "O Yes" while 
his enemies loitered in the valley of "O no." 

In the gale of adverse winds, adjust your sails, 
steer the gear, and go somewhere ; that beats a dead 
calm. 

The ministry of solitude can be substituted by 
nothing, nor can any one improve the art of medita- 
tion, but by practice. 

Like railroading, in the absence of a positive com- 
mand, stay where you are until further orders; that 
is patience . . . love stretched out. 

iS4 



Streams from Lebanon 155 

Prayer is simply opening all the gates toward 
Heaven, and letting down the bars for God to 
come in. 

Holiness is the greatest cog-wheel in all the ma- 
chinery of God, shrunken to the main shaft of His 
church, cast solid, unadjustable, and when it turns, 
it turns all the lesser wheels. 



A SWARM OF BEES. 

Dear reader, here is a swarm of God's honey bees ; 
let them settle in your heart, and they will make 
honey for you in the days and years to come. 

Be saved. Isa. 45 :22. 

Be holy. I Pet. 1 :i6. 

Be sober. I Pet. 5:8. 

Be discreet. Titus 2:5. 

Be vigilant. I Pet. 5 :8. 

Be perfect. Matt. 5 48. 

Be diligent. II Pet. 3:14. 

Be happy. Psalm 128 :2. 

Be faithful. Rev. 2:10. 

Be pitiful. I Pet. 3 :8. 

Be courteous. I Pet. 3 :8. 

Be courageous. Josh. 1 :y. 

Be ye thankful. Col. 3:15. 

Be ye transformed. Rom. 12:2. 

Be of good comfort. II Cor. 13:11. 

Be ye also patient. James 5 :8. 

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Streams from Lebanon 157 

Be ye also ready. Matt. 24:44. 

Be of good cheer. John 16 133. 

Be not faithless. John 20:27. 

Be of one mind. II Cor. 13:11. 

Be not slothful. Judges 18:9. 

Be of good behavior. I Tim. 3:2. 

Be strong in the Lord. Eph. 6:10. 

Be wise as serpents. Matt. 10:16. 

Be filled with the Spirit. Eph. 5:18. 

Be joyful in the Lord. Psalm 35 :g. 

Be the husband of one wife. I Tim. 3 :2. 

Be kind and tender hearted. Eph. 4 :32. 

Be as harmless as a dove. Matt. 10:16. 

Be glad in the Lord and shout for joy. Psalm 
32:11. 

Be not righteous over much. Eccl. 7:16. 

Be patient toward all men. I Thess. 5 :i4. 

Be not conformed to this world. Rom. 12 :2. 

Be not overcome with evil. Rom. 12:21. 

Be not greedy of filthy lucre. I Tim. 3 :$. 

Be not wise in your own conceits. Rom. 12:16. 

Be instant in season and out of season. II Tim. 
4:2. 

Be a vessel unto honor sanctified. II Tim. 2:21. 



158 Streams from Lebanon 

Be kindly affectioned one to another. Rom. 12: 
10. 

Be strong in the grace of Jesus Christ. II Tim. 
2:1. 

Be not soon shaken in mind or troubled. II 
Thess. 2 :2. 

Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. 
Isa. 52:11. 

Be blameless and harmless the sons of God, in 
the midst of a crooked and perverse nation. Phil. 

2:15. 

Be ready always to give an answer to every man 
that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you 
with meekness and fear. I Pet. 3:15. 



THE SINFULNESS OF SIN. 

"That sin by the commandment might become ex- 
ceeding sinful." (Rom. 7:13.) 

Sin is the most subtle thing in the universe. It 
insinuates itself so gradually into the lives of people 
that they know not its progress until the nature is 
so corrupt as to be capable of the darkest crimes. 

The principle of sin is unbelief; its essence, 
enmity to God ; its development, disobedience. This 
trinal nature of sin can be seen when it is in the 
soul. 1st. Its principle, unbelief, takes the place 
of faith in God. 2d. Its essence, enmity to God, 
takes the place of love to God. 3d. Its develop- 
ment, disobedience, takes the place of obedience to 
God. 

Not only does sin exist in transgressions and 
overt actions, but also in omission. "He that know- 
eth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin." 

As an illustration : When Belshazzar gave a feast 
to a thousand of his lords down in Babylon and 
Daniel was summoned to interpret the handwriting 
on the wall, this prophet of God, in explaining the 

i59 



160 Streams from Lebanon 

meaning of the message, declared the ground of 
condemnation of the king to be none of the grosser 
offenses of which he had been guilty, though at 
that very time he had been indulging, with his 
princes and nobles, in the orgies of the most obscene 
blasphemy; but the condemnation was summed up 
in these simple words : "The God in whose hands 
thy breath is and whose are all thy ways, hast thou 

NOT HONORED." 

In the New Testament we read how Herod, after 
an oration, so complacently received the adulations 
of the people of Tyre and Sidon ; and the angel of 
the Lord smote him with a dread disease that he 
fell dead, and the simple reason given in the Word 
of God is, "He gave not God the glory." 

Again, when the foolish virgins were shut out at 
the marriage supper it was because they failed to 
have oil in their lamps. 

Jesus says that at the Judgment many shall hear 
the awful denunciation, "Depart from me; I never 
knew you," the reason He gives being, "Inasmuch 
as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did 
it not to me" 

But sin does exist in actions, words and deeds, as 
well as in omission. It extends into the habits, states, 



Streams from Lebanon 161 

conditions and characteristics of our lives. Many 
times before people are sanctified wholly and have 
carnality uprooted and eradicated from their hearts, 
when they get down to pray, there is a subconscious- 
ness in the soul, behind the will, of something tell- 
ing them that they have not complete victory over 
this virus of Hell. No wonder God said, "The heart 
is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; 
who can know it?" 

Men sin against their better judgment, against 
light, against love, and worst of all, against God. 

This thing called SIN is spelled with three letters, 
and has the hiss of the serpent in the very pronuncia- 
tion. This spawn of Hell, sired in the dungeons of 
dark damnation ; this thing which is foreign to God, 
will shut us out of Heaven if we have it in our hearts. 
It has withered, and blighted, and blasted, and 
damned multiplied thousands gone before; it is 
wrecking lives, breaking hearts and ruining homes 
today ; but it can never be turned loose in Heaven ; 
hence, if we die with it in our hearts, we will be 
damned forever. 

God help you, reader, if you have not already done 
so, to seek a clean heart, and have the blood of Jesus 
which cleanses us from all sin applied to your heart. 



SOME FACTS ABOUT HELL. 

In this day of popular religions, and religious fads, 
a man is considered not bright if he believes the 
statements of the old Book concerning a Bible Hell. 

Notwithstanding the unbelief, the fun making, the 
writing of volumes against it, the cunning sophistry 
and ingenuity of the human and carnal mind in de- 
riding it ; after all is said and done, the fact remains 
unchanged : There is a Hell. 

But, says one, while that is true, Hell is only 
figurative. I grant that the language of the Book is, 
but the figure is never so real as the thing itself, on 
the principle that the shadow of a man is not so real 
as the man himself. If the fire we have in our 
stoves and engines and furnaces in this country is 
only figurative, then what would the real be ? And 
I have to tell you that the fire spoken of will burn 
you. Not only the physical, but the spiritual man. 
The hand of a corpse could be burned off without it 
being removed from the flame, or drawing back, 
from the fact that the spirit had made its exit from 
the tenement of clay ; showing that the spiritual man 

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Streams from Lebanon 163 

can be burned with real fire. Now, if the spirit can 
be burned in reality, here in this world, why not in 
the next? 

On the principle that every negative has its oppo- 
site in the material and scientific world, so surely 
will the negative and positive obtain in the spiritual 
realm. One could not exist without the other. So 
Hell will be the exact opposite of Heaven. What 
Heaven is not Hell is. 

In Heaven there will be law, but in Hell there 
will be anarchy; in Heaven there will be love, but 
in Hell there will be hate ; in Heaven there will be 
joy, but in Hell there will be sorrow; in Heaven 
there will be music, but in Hell there will be discord ; 
in Heaven there will be rest, but in Hell there will 
be no rest day nor night forever; in Heaven there 
will be light, but in Hell there will be the blackness 
of darkness forever. 

If it is true, as some people try to make them- 
selves believe, that there is no Hell, then God is the 
greatest falsifier the world has ever known, and the 
Bible the greatest farce in this country, and sensible 
people should quit going to church, burn their Bibles, 
turn off their preachers and do something that has 
some sense to it. On the other hand, if there IS a 



164 Streams from Lebanon 

Hell (and we all know there is), then we preachers 
should preach, act and live like we believed it to be 
true. When men repeat a thing it sometimes loses 
its value, but when God repeats a thing it multiplies 
and immediately engages our attention. 

God, through the inspired writer, took particular 
pains to tell us all about Hell. 

HE TELLS US WHO GOES TO HELL. 

"The wicked shall be turned into Hell, with all the 
nations that forget God." 

"The fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, 
and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, 
and idolaters, and liars, shall have their part in the 
lake which burneth with fire and brimstone; which 
is the second death." 

"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not in- 
herit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived; neither 
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effe- 
minate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor 
thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, 
nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." 
1 Cor. 6:9-10. 

Along with this God presents us with another 
photograph fully as vivid, and equally as positive in 



Streams from Lebanon 165 

saying they cannot go to Heaven; and that is the 
same as saying that they go to Hell. 

"Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which 
are these: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, las- 
civiousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, 
emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envy- 
in gs, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such 
like; of the which I tell you before, as I have also 
told you in time past, that they which do such things 
shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Gal. 5 :ig, 21. 

HE TELLS WHAT THEY ARE DOING IN HELL. 

"And in Hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, 
and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his 
bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, 
have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may 
dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; 
for I am tormented in this flame." Luke 16 123, 24. 

A. Wailing : 

"The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and 
they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that 
offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast 
them into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing 
and gnashing of teeth" Matt. 13 41-42. 



166 Streams from Lebanon 

B. Suffering: 

"I will therefore put you in remembrance though 
ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved 
the people out of the land of Egypt, afterzvard de- 
stroyed them that believed not. And the angels 
which kept not their first estate, but left their own 
habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains 
under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. 
Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about 
them in like manner, giving themselves over to for- 
nication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth 
for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal 
fire." Judes:;. 

C. Remembering : 

"But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in 
thy life-time receivedst thy good things, and likewise 
Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted, and 
thou art tormented." Luke 16: 25. 

There is no doubt in the writer's mind that the 
worm that shall die not will be memory. 

A soul lost in an eternal Hell will have all eternity 
to remember. Who can conceive of the tortures of 
Hell to the people who deliberately made their choice 
in time and for eternity against God? Think of 



Streams from Lebanon 167 

the pangs, and sorrows, and woe that await a lost 
soul in Hell! The very fact of eternal existence 
with the consciousness of God's unmitigated wrath 
and hatred is enough to make one turn from his evil 
ways ; to say nothing of the awful suffering through- 
out an endless eternity. 

A merciful and holy God who loves us better than 
an earthly father could love us, is doing all He can 
to stop us in our mad career and plunge to eternal 
darkness ; to keep us out of the lake of fire. 

Read these red lights that God swings across our 
path as we hasten to the Judgment: "Bottomless 
pit," "lake of fire," "blackness of darkness forever," 
"everlasting destruction," "gnashing of teeth," 
"everlasting punishment," "suffering the vengeance 
of eternal fire," "tormented with fire and brimstone," 
"cast into the lake of fire," "reserved in everlasting 
chains under darkness," "everlasting burnings," 
"gnawing tongues for pain." 

Reader, the pale horse of death with his rider is 
on your track, and he will come suddenly into view 
some of these days as if rounding a curve, and when 
he levels his arrow at your quivering heart you will 
pay that last of all debts. And if you are not saved 
the devil will drag your lost soul behind the swelter- 



168 Streams from Lebanon 

ing walls of Hell, where demons will sink their 
venomous fangs into your deathless spirit, and with 
hellish glee mock you in your misery. You may 
scream and run and fly to the farthest outposts, but 
you will never find any exit from that dark world. 
You may scale the loftiest turrets of darkest moun- 
tains, threading inky chasms, traversing dingy hills 
and smoldering plains, but the Book says you will 
be tormented day and night forever. You will be 
swept on by the billowy blast of rain of fire, and hail 
of brimstone, into the lake of fire, where the black 
billows of damnation roll high, where the smoke 
ascends in serpentine trails, emitting smoke and 
flame in the blackness of darkness above where the 
outraged justice of a holy God plies her lightning 
wrath like a weaver's shuttle in every direction. Not 
only will you be in Hell, but you will be LOST in 
Hell, and LOST FOREVER. 



HELL. 

What Is It? 

i. A lake of fire. "And whosoever was not 
found written in the book of life was cast into the 
lake of fire." Rev. 20:15. 

2. A bottomless pit. "And I saw an angel come 
down from heaven, having the key of the bottom- 
less pit and a great chain in his hand." Rev. 20:1. 

3. Everlasting burnings. "Who among us shall 
dwell with everlasting burnings?" Isa. 33:14. 

4. A furnace of fire. "And they shall cast them 
into a furnace of fire." Matt. 13:42. 

5. Everlasting destruction. "Who shall be pun- 
ished with everlasting destruction from the presence 
of the Lord." 2 Thess. 1 :g. 

6. A place of torments. "And in hell he lift up 
his eyes, being in torments." Luke 16 :2^. 

7. A place of everlasting punishment. "And 
these shall go away into everlasting punishment : but 
the righteous into life eternal." Matt. 25 46. 

8. A place where people pray. "And he cried 

169 



170 Streams from Lebanon 

and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me." 
Luke 16:24. 

9. A place of wailing. "There shall be wailing 
and gnashing of teeth." Matt. 13 42. 

10. A place of weeping. "There shall be weep- 
ing and gnashing of teeth." Matt. 8:12. 

11. A place of sorrows. "The sorrows of hell 
compassed me about : the snares of death prevented 
me." Psalms 18:5. 

12. A place of outer darkness. "And cast ye the 
unprofitable servant into outer darkness : there shall 
be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Matt. 25 :30. 

13. A place of no rest. "And they have no rest 
day nor night." Rev. 14:11. 

14. A place where men gnaw their tongues. 
"And they gnawed their tongues for pain." Rev. 
16:10. 

15. A place of bodily sores. "And blasphemed 
the God of heaven because of their pains and their 
sores." Rev. 16:11. 

16. A place of blackness and darkness. "To 
whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever." 
Jude 13. 

17. A place of unquenched fire. "And the fire 
is not quenched." Mark 9 48. 



Streams from Lebanon 171 

18. A place of brimstone. "And he shall be tor- 
mented with fire and brimstone." Rev. 14:10. 

19. A place where men drink the cup of God's 
wrath. "The same shall drink of the wine of the 
wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture 
into the cup of his indignation." Rev. 14:10. 

20. A place where loved ones are not wanted. 
"I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest 
send him to my father's house: For I have five 
brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they 
also come into this place of torment/' Luke 16 :2J- 
28. 

21. A place of thirst. "And send Lazarus, that 
he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool 
my tongue." Luke 16:24. 

22. A place of uncleanness. "For without are 
dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and mur- 
derers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and 
maketh a lie." Rev. 22:15. 

23. A place of burning breath. "Your breath, 
as fire, shall devour you." Isa. 33:11. 

24. A place of unceasing torment. "And the 
smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and 
ever." Rev. 14:11. 

25. A place of damnation. "But he that shall 



172 Streams from Lebanon 

blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never for- 
giveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation." 
Mark 3 :2g. 

26. A place that is down. "Hell from beneath 
is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming." 
Isa. 14:9. 

27. A place where soul and body are destroyed 
together. "But rather fear Him which is able to 
destroy both soul and body in hell." Matt. 10:28. 

28. A place where God desires none to go. "As 
I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the 
death of the wicked ; but that the wicked turn from 
his way and live." Ezek. 33:11. 

29. A place prepared for Satan and fallen angels. 
"Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, 
prepared for the devil and his angels." Matt. 25 41. 

30. A place of unending duration. "And these 
shall go away into everlasting punishment." Matt. 

25 46. 

31. A place which will continue as long as 
heaven ; for the same word in the Greek, which is 
used to express the duration of heaven, is also the 
one which is used to express the duration of hell. 
It is "aionios" meaning "without end." 



WINTER'S COMING ON. 

The rustling of the Autumn leaves a-down the glade 

and o'er the hill, 
Leaping, dancing, flying at the wind's own capering 

will, 
Tell me Summer days are ended, that the sultry 

blasts are gone, 
That the snow will soon be falling, for the Winter's 

coming on. 
The goldenrod has faded and the fields are clothed 

in brown; 
The cricket's prayers are ended and the robin makes 

no sound; 
The rocking of the woodlands crooning out their 

solemn song, 
Tell me Summer days are over, that the Winter's 

coming on. 
The household gathers early from the field, the 

school, the town ; 
The old hearth with its brightness sheds its glory 

all around, 

173 



174 Streams from Lebanon 

Where heart, and life, and memory weave their 

creed to early dawn, 
While the howling winds around us tell us Winter's 

coming on. 

The face of dear old Mother as she tucks the dear 

ones in, 
Father reading, nodding, dozing, spite o' children's 

merry din ; 
Once a-bed we closely cuddled, o'er our heads the 

cover drawn, 
While the frisky winds without would whisper, 

"Winter's coming on." 



THE JUDGMENT. 

"For the great day of his wrath is come, and 
who shall be able to stand?" Rev. 6:17. There 
seems to be but one day that God calls a "Great 
Day," and that is the day of His wrath or judgment. 
"It is appointed unto men once to die, and after that 
the judgment." This day is on our track, and it is 
only a question of time until we are overtaken. The 
great question that concerns us is, "Who shall be 
able to stand in that day ?" In God's description of 
that day, He says, "Howl ye, for the day of the 
Lord is at hand. It shall come as a destruction from 
the Almighty, therefore every man's heart shall 
melt." 

Man may be full of courage and hard-hearted 
now ; but according to this, there will be a day when 
every heart will melt, and pangs and sorrow shall 
take hold of them. They shall be in pain as a 
woman that travails; they shall be amazed one at 
the other, and every face shall be as flames. "Be- 
hold the day of the Lord cometh, cruel, both with 
wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate, and 

175 



176 Streams from Lebanon 

he shall destroy the sinners from out of it, for the 
stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall 
not give forth their light. The sun shall be dark- 
ened in his going forth, and the moon shall not 
cause her light to shine, and I will punish the world 
for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity, and 
I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease and 
will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible." 

He furthermore says: "The great day of the 
Lord is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of 
the day of the Lord ; the mighty men shall cry there 
bitterly." That day is a day of wrath, and a day of 
trouble, and a day of distress, and a day of waste- 
ness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloomi- 
ness, a day of clouds and thick darkness. 

It is a day when He will tread the wine-press of 
the fierceness of wrath, of His anger; when men 
shall drink of the wrath of God that is "poured out 
without mixture into the cup of his indignation;" 
when they shall be tormented with fire and brim- 
stone; when "the smoke of their torment will as- 
cend up for ever and ever, and they have no rest." 
A day when God will rain fire, and a terrible tempest 
on the wicked. A day when men shall be punished 
with "everlasting destruction from the presence of 



Streams from Lebanon 177 

the Lord and from the glory of his power." A 
day when God will "lay righteousness to the line 
and judgment to the plummet." 

And as the shepherd divides the sheep from the 
goats, so God will divide the righteous from the 
sinners. Those on the right hand will hear Him 
say, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the 
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of 
the world." And to those on the left He will say, 
"Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, 
prepared for the devil and his angels." In that day 
when men will have to give an account of every 
idle word, for the deeds done in the body, whether 
good or evil. In that day He will bring to light the 
hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the 
counsels of men's hearts, and He will bring "every 
work into judgment, with every secret thing, 
whether it be good or whether it be evil." In that 
day the sea will give up the dead which are in it, 
and death and Hell will deliver up the dead that 
are in them, and men will be judged according to 
their works, and whosoever is not found written in 
the book of life will be cast into the lake of fire. 

In that day the dead, both small and great, shall 
stand before God, and the books will be opened, and 



178 Streams from Lebanon 

men will be judged according to the things written 
in the books. 

"You are writing down your own book of life 

Day by day, a record foul or fair. 

O how great shall be your joy, 

If you make that record clear, 

For your books will all be brought to view. 

You are writing down the thoughts you think. 

You are writing down the deeds you do. 

Whether spoken or unheard, 

You are writing every word. 

By and by your books will all be brought to view." 

In that day God will rip this old earth open with 
spasms and earthquakes, and "the sun shall become 
like sackcloth, and the moon shall become as blood, 
and the stars of heaven shall fall ; then the kings of 
the earth and the great men and rich men and mighty 
men shall cry for the rocks and the mountains to 
fall on them and hide them from the face of Him 
that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of 
the Lamb." In that day men will want mercy, but it 
will be too late to pray. The white-winged angel of 
mercy will have flown forever. Men will be speech- 
less in that hour, and it will be too late to pray. 



Streams from Lebanon 179 

Reader, if you are not sheltered under the blood, 
in that hour as you near the gates of death, shadows 
full of phantom shapes will stare at you on every 
side. Images of terror will rise to meet you. Deeds 
of the past will stretch out their bony hands to push 
you into an eternal Hell. Despair will mock you in 
your misery. Agony will tender to your burning and 
parched lips her fiery cup. Remorse will rend your 
conscience, and regret will clutch at the throat of 
memory while you are being swept on the billowy 
blast of the everlasting storm that rains fire and 
brimstone in a devil's Hell. On the black-crested 
waves of damnation you may lift your fruitless cries, 
but you will sink in the bosom of the lake of fire to 
be lost forever. 

If you are not saved, repent and turn to God, find 
shelter under the blood, and you will never fear that 
awful day of Judgment. 



HE THAT HATH WROUGHT US. 

2 Cor. 5 :s. 

Here the forging and rough hewing — Yonder the 
building. 

Here the quarry lands and blasting — Yonder the 
beautiful temple. 

Nursery grounds here — Lebanon Hills yonder. 

Laboratory here — Immprtal essences yonder. 

Here the pearl waters, diamond beds, grinding, 
chiseling, polishing — Yonder His jewels. 

Keyed here 'mid thundering and lightning — Yon- 
der we rise to the symphonies of the skies. 

Washing, ironing, fine linen here — Marriage sup- 
per of the Lamb yonder. 

Seed time here — Harvest by and by. 

Sowing in tears now — Bringing in sheaves yonder. 

Pilgrims and strangers here — Home yonder. 

Groans, sweat, crying and dying here — Peace, rest, 
quietness, assurance, eternal life there. 



180 



HEART LIFE. 

To maintain one's position among men is the bar- 
rier that holds some men back from committing sin, 
and not the fear of God : hence in His sight they are 
held equally guilty with those who commit sin. The 
thoughts reveal the heart life. Small straws de- 
termine which way the wind blows. The bee seeks 
the flowers it loves best. 

So with one's thoughts. Our thoughts run to 
the things we love best. "As a man thinketh in 
his heart, so is he." 



181 



SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF GOD'S HOLY 
PEOPLE. 

A SEPARATED PEOPLE. 

Richly laden are the promises of God to His 
obedient children. Truly we are severed "from 
the nations round about us, and chosen to be a 
special people above all the people upon the face 
of the earth." (Deut. vii, 6.) Nor has the Lord 
chosen us because we are more in number than any 
people, but He has set His love upon us because 
we were the fewest of all people. (Deut. vii, 

7-) 

The scarcity of the article increases its value. 
Great wealth is sometimes conveyed in small pack- 
ages. 

God's holy people, exploring Canaan, bring con- 
sternation to the enemies' ranks wherever they go. 
They load to kill. The missiles of truth from His 
agents do execution. They hit with the edge of the 
board. The giants flee when God's holy people 
come marching through the land, "fair as the moon, 
clear as the sun, and as terrible as an army with 

182 



Streams from Lebanon 183 

banners." (Cant, vi, 10.) They are above all the 
people upon the face of the earth. 

A PEOPLE THAT DWELL ON HIGH. 

This is a high profession — "He shall dwell on 
high" — margin, heights or high places. (Isa. 
xxxiii, 16.) 

"He beholds the land that is afar off," and not 
only that, he "sees the King in His beauty." (Isa. 
xxxiii, 17.) Beholding the land afar off implies a 
telescopic eye. Now he adjusts his telescope of 
faith, and that which was afar off is brought nigh. 
As the room must be darkened and all the lights 
shut out, to get the best view through this world's 
telescopes of the planets, so we must shut out all 
human reasoning and light of this world's "wise- 
acres" to enter and dwell in this land. By a simple 
act of faith in the shed blood of Christ, make one 
bold dash for Jordan and go through at any cost. 

Then too, "his bread shall be given him and his 
water shall be sure." Here is a promise that you 
will never starve to death. Although the devil 
tries to make us believe we will if we enter into 
this experience, we know he is a liar. And, then, 
here is an unbounded promise from our Father to 



184 Streams from Lebanon 

sustain us: "And the Scripture can not be 
broken." (John x, 35.) Well do we remember 
how the devil magnified and brought before our 
vision the poorhouse, and tried to scare us out; 
even some of our friends and kindred joined him; 
but we turned a deaf ear to it all, and followed our 
Joshua on to victory, and entered the land. The 
best of all is, our habitation is safe. 

A SAFE PEOPLE. 

"His place of defense shall be the Munitions of 
Rocks." The raging storms and roaring breakers 
of a hundred generations may beat and break at 
the base of this Gibraltar, but you are safe, "and 
His children shall have a place of refuge." (Prov. 
xiv, 26.) No enemy can scale the battlements of 
this defense. 

These "rock-dwellers" know no defeat, and are 
perfectly safe, therefore a happy people. "Let the 
inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from 
the top of the mountains." (Isa. xlii, 11.) They 
can sing and shout as no other people, on Monday, 
wash-day, scrub-day, and all other days. 

"Happy is that man that maketh the Lord his 



Streams from Lebanon 185 

trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as 
turn aside to lies." (Psa. xl, 4.) 

"Happy are they that dwell in Thy house, they 
shall still be praising Thee." (Psa. lxxxiv, 4.) 

"Happy is the people that know the joyful sound: 
they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy 
countenance ; in Thy name shall they rejoice all the 
day, and in Thy righteousness shall they be ex- 
alted." (Psa. lxxxix, 15, 16.) 

A BLESSED PEOPLE. 

Now, in Deuteronomy xxviii, 12, we are told 
that "the Lord shall open to thee His good treasure 
* * * and bless all the work of thine hand : and 
thou shalt lend unto many nations and thou shalt 
not borrow." God's children are never out borrow- 
ing, they are rich, and are able to lend and give 
away. When I was a boy on the farm they used 
to send me to the neighbors to borrow fire when 
we were out. Many are doing that thing in religion 
to-day. "They are out." They are all the time 
borrowing or warming by some one's fire but their 
own. You will see them at camp-meeting in a 
nicely-furnished cottage-, at all the services with 
pencil and paper; they always know who the best 



186 Streams from Lebanon 

evangelist is, and it is always the one that's not 
there that year. They don't sweat and groan 
around the mourners'-bench ; their linen stays in 
its proper place, and don't sweat down, like the 
most of folks. 

A LIBERAL PEOPLE. 

Thank God, there is an experience where you 
can lend and give away all you have all the time; 
and the more you practice it, the more you have to 
hand out. "There is that scattereth, and yet in- 
creaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than 
is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. The liberal soul 
shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be 
watered also himself." (Prov. xi, 24, 25.) 

'The Lord shall open unto thee His good treas- 
ure, the heaven, * * * to bless all the work of 
thine hand." 

"And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in 
goods." 

"And the Lord shall command the blessing upon 
thee in thy storehouses." 

"And the Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise 
up against thee to be smitten before thy face ; they 



Streams from Lebanon 187 

shall come out against thee one way, and flee seven 
ways." 

"There shall no man be able to stand before you : 
for the Lord your God shall lay the fear of you 
and the dread of you upon all the land that ye shall 
tread upon." 

PEOPLE THAT ARE AHEAD. 

The world puts us behind, but God puts us 
ahead. "For that which is highly esteemed among 
men, is abomination in the sight of God." (Luke 
xvi, 15.) What men put on top, God puts under- 
neath. Men put riches, pleasure, luxury, and in 
fact everything else ahead of a holy life. Gold 
seems to be at the top here, but we will walk on it 
in heaven. The Lord wants us to lead and not to 
follow. In other words, we are to "set" the fash- 
ions, and not follow them. 

When the newly-elected governor moved in, to 
take up his duties, and sent his children to school, 
they returned sad-hearted because the other chil- 
dren had made fun of their clothes. The governor 
told them to go back and tell the ones that had ridi- 
culed them that they were the governor's children, 
and had come to lead the fashions, and not to fol- 
low them. 



188 Streams from Lebanon 

A PEOPLE THAT ARE ON TOP. 

"Thou shalt be above only and shalt not be be- 
neath." They may cover us up with argument and 
reasoning, but we have the goods. Somehow or 
other, we are soon on top, flying our flags. We 
may have to go to Potiphar's prison or through the 
lion's den, but it only means that we are to soon sit 
on the throne; and the very things that Satan 
throws in our way to make us stumble are only 
stepping-stones to lift us higher and nearer to God. 
Hence, always on top. 

Now, in the eleventh chapter of Deuteronomy 
He says: "For if ye shall diligently keep all these 
commandments which I command you, to do them, 
to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, 
and to cleve unto Him; then will the Lord drive 
out all these nations from before you, and ye shall 
possess greater nations and mightier than your- 
selves. Every place whereon the soles of your feet 
shall tread shall be yours : from the wilderness, 
and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, 
even unto the uttermost sea shall your coast be. 
There shall no man be able to stand before you: 
for the Lord your God shall lay the fear of you, 



Streams from Lebanon 189 

and the dread of you upon all the land that ye shall 
tread upon, as He hath said unto you." (Deut. xi, 
22-25.) Here He promises to fight our battles, 
give us unlimited possessions, and put the fear of 
us on the land. Then again, in Joel, He promises 
us that we shall have plenty. 

"And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and 
praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath 
dwelt wondrously with you: and my people shall 
never be ashamed." (Joel ii, 26.) 

A SATISFIED PEOPLE. 

Then in the twenty-fourth verse He says we 
shall have the overflow blessing: "And the floors 
shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow 
with wine and oil." (Joel ii, 24.) Furthermore, 
He promises us that we shall be satisfied, and not 
only satisfied, but abundantly satisfied: "They shall 
be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy 
house; and Thou shalt make them drink of the 
river of Thy pleasures." (Psa. xxxvi, 8.) 

Now, here we are at the river, and it is a river of 
pleasure. This is just one of His rivers. God's 
rivers are many. He has rivers of peace, delight, 
joy, life, quietness, assurance, satisfaction, etc. 



190 Streams from Lebanon 

"His rivers are full." Throw away your cup and 
wade in — there is plenty. O, that you would 
harken to Him, dear reader ! that your "peace may 
be as a river, and your righteousness as the waves 
of the sea." (Isa. xlviii, 18.) You may not only 
enjoy the waters of Shiloh, that "go softly" "and 
rejoice," but, behold, the Lord will bring upon you 
"the waters of the river strong and many; * * 
* and he shall come up over all his channels, and 
go over all his banks." It will not only overflow 
Judah, but he shall overflow and stretch out and 
"fill the breadth of the land." (Isa. viii, 6-8.) 
Hallelujah ! 

"Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them 
stretch forth the curtain of thy habitations; spare 
not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes ; 
for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and 
on the left." (Isa. liv, 2, 3.) The creeks and 
rivers are out of their banks. "Let thy fountains 
be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the 
streets." (Prov. v, 16.) 

Come on, there is plenty, and to spare. "And 
the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him 
that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst 



Streams from Lebanon 191 

come. And whosoever will, let him take the water 
of life freely." (Rev. xxii, 17.) 

Not only are we to drink at the river, but we 
shall be "abundantly satisfied with the fatness of 
Thy house." "And I will satiate the soul of the 
priests with fatness, and My people shall be satis- 
fied with My goodness, saith the Lord." (Jer. xxxi, 

I4-) 

In order to be fat and flourishing and satisfied, we 
must eat at His table, and not only that, but we 
must sleep where we take our meals. "He giveth 
His beloved sleep." "When thou liest down, thou 
shalt not be afraid; yea, thou shalt lie down and 
thy sleep shall be sweet." (Prov. iii, 24.) 

"Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the 
waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, 
and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without 
money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend 
money for that which is not bread ? and your labor 
for that which satisfieth not? harken diligently 
unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your 
soul delight itself in fatness." (Isa. lv, 1, 2.) Folks 
that spend their time and money for that which 
satisfieth not need not expect to enjoy a Canaan ex- 
perience. 



192 Streams from Lebanon 

A WELL-FED PEOPLE. 

"Eat ye that which is good." That is, eat at 
the Lord's table, where the "good" things are; for 
that is all that His true servants put on the table, 
for the simple reason He don't furnish anything for 
His table that is not good. "Who satisfieth thy 
mouth with good things; so that thy youth is re- 
newed like the eagle's." (Psa. ciii, 5.) "The 
righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul." 
(Prov. xiii, 25.) "Thou preparest a table before 
me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anoint- 
est my head with oil; my cup runneth over." (Psa. 
xxiii, 5.) "If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall 
eat the good of the land." (Isa. i, 19.) "The meek 
shall eat and be satisfied : they shall praise the Lord 
that seek Him." (Psa. xxvii, 26.) 

"Now, therefore, give not your daughters unto 
their sons, neither take their daughters unto your 
sons, nor seek their peace or their wealth forever: 
that ye may be strong, and eat the good of the land, 
and leave it for an inheritance to your children 
forever." (Ezra ix, 12.) 

On our Father's table is found "wine that maketh 
glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to 



Streams from Lebanon 193 

shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart." 
"Thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, and thou 
shalt not lack anything. * * * When thou 
hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the 
Lord thy God for the good land which He has 
given thee." (Deut. viii, 9, 10.) 

A HEALTHY PEOPLE. 

"They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; 
they shall be fat and flourishing." (Psa. xcii, 14.) 
Flourishing in the margin here is marked "green." 
That is, they shall have an ever green experience. 
"Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree." 
The fir is evergreen. They shall be green and 
flourishing continually. 

"And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and 
satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones : 
and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a 
spring of water, whose waters fail not." (Isa. lviii, 
11.) Notice, He will guide (not drag) us continu- 
ally (not by spells), satisfy our souls in drought. 
This enables us to "drink running waters out of 
our own well." (Prov. v, 15.) And when all the 
little surface springs around dry up, we have an 
abundance of water in our spring, from the fact 



194 Streams from Lebanon 

that we have dug deep and struck water that never 
faileth, or, as the margin has it, ''never deceives." 

In order to be fat and flourishing, healthy and 
satisfied, we must eat the right kind of food, drink 
pure water (that is, at the Fountain that never runs 
dry), and take proper exercise; for these are all 
necessary and conducive to good health to the 
soul. 

"Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will 
cure them, and will reveal unto them the abun- 
dance of peace and truth." (Jer. xxxiii, 6.) 

"And that ye may prolong your days in the land, 
which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give 
unto them and to their seed, a land that floweth 
with milk and honey." (Deut. xi, 9.) 

"So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's." 
(Psa. ciii, 5.) 

The above Scriptures are proof positive that the 
people that are in the land are a healthy, long-lived 
people : 

"And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick : the 
people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their 
iniquity." (Isa. xxxiii, 24.) 

"With long life will I satisfy him, and show him 
my salvation." (Psa. xci, 16.) 



Streams from Lebanon 195 

A JOYFUL PEOPLE. 

Not only are the inhabitants of Canaan healthy, 
rugged, and satisfied, but they are a joyful people. 
"Thou shalt make me full of joy with Thy counte- 
nance." (Acts ii, 28.) They gaze at the King and 
look on His countenance until they are "changed 
into the same image from glory to glory, even as by 
the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Cor. iii, 18.) They 
live as it were, in the immediate presence of God. 
"In Thy presence is fulness of joy." (Psa. xvi, 

11.) 

"The kingdom of God is * * * righteous- 
ness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." (Rom. 
xiv, 17.) According to this anaylsis, one-third of 
religion is joy. "In whom, though now ye see Him 
not, yet believing ye rejoice with joy unspeakable 
and full of glory." (1 Pet. i, 8.) "Therefore with 
joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salva- 
tion." (Isa. xii, 3.) "They eat their bread with 
joy, and drink wine with a merry heart ; their gar- 
ments are always white, and their head lacks no 
ointment." (Eccl. ix, 7, 8.) They "sing for joy." 
(Isa. lxv, 14.) They "shout for joy." (Ezra iii, 
12.) They "leap for joy." (Acts xiv, 10.) They 



196 Streams from Lebanon 

"offer sacrifices of joy." (Psa. xxvii, 6.) They are 
"filled with joy." (Acts xiii, 52.) Their "joy in- 
creases." (Isa. xxix, 19.) "The joy of the Lord 
is their strength." (Neh. viii, 10.) Their joy is 
"full." (Psa. xvi, 11.) Their joy is "everlasting." 
(Isa. xxxv, 10.) 

And what shall I more say ? — for the time would 
fail me to tell of David before the Ark, the cripple 
at the Gate Beautiful, of the crowd that descended 
the Mount of Olives with our Savior, of Gideon's 
pitcher brigade; also of the folks that crossed 
Jordan, and of Ezra's crowd, — how that, with joy 
and shouting, they danced before the Ark, went 
walking, leaping, and praising God through the 
temple, made the Pharisees mad, put to flight the 
armies of the Midianites, laid the corner-stone for 
a Holiness Church, knocked down Jericho, took Ai, 
and cleaned up the whole land. 

A PROSPEROUS PEOPLE. 

"Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there 
shall not be male or female barren among you, or 
among your cattle." (Deut. vii, 14.) 

"And He will love thee, and bless thee, and 
multiply thee: He will also bless the fruit of thy 



Streams from Lebanon 197 

womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy 
wine and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the 
flocks of thy sheep, in the land which He sware unto 
thy fathers to give thee." (Deut. vii, 13.) 

''And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in 
goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of 
thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the 
land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give 
thee." (Deut. xxviii, 11.) 

"The Lord shall open unto thee His good treas- 
ure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his 
season, and to bless all the work of thy hand." 
(Deut. xxviii, 12.) 

"The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee 
in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thy 
hand unto: and He shall bless thee in the land 
which the Lord thy God giveth thee." (Deut. 
xxviii, 8.) 

The above Scriptures show us that eveiy way we 
turn we shall prosper, and everything we set our 
hands to, He will bless it. These promises are un- 
limited, and come from God our Father. God's 
holy people honor Him in keeping His command- 
ments and with their substance and with the first- 
fruits of all their increase, and, of course, their 



198 Streams from Lebanon 

"barns are rilled with plenty, and their presses 
burst out with new wine." (Prov. iii, 9, 10.) 

THEY ARE A FILLED PEOPLE. 

"Their floors are full of wheat" and their "fats 
overflow with wine and oil." The Jews were re- 
quired to appear at Jerusalem three times a year, — 
once at the Feast of the Passover, then at the Feast 
of the Tabernacles, and at the Feast of Pentecost. 
At the Feast of Pentecost they were to come up 
"full" of the firstfruits of all the land. It came 
at harvest, or threshing-time. When God called 
Gideon, he was "threshing wheat" behind the wine- 
press. He had the blessing. Every little fellow 
in this land has "wheat to thresh" (the floors are 
full), and grapes to bruise (fats overflow), and oil 
in abundance. 

They are always full. They all know how to 
"sack wheat;" and when the angel of the Lord 
comes seeking one of these "Abi-Ezerites," he in- 
variably finds him threshing and making prepar- 
ation to celebrate at Pentecost; i. e., getting ready 
to go to some big holiness meeting in the country 
somewhere. And about all he wants to talk about 
is, wheat and grapes, and going to meeting. Glory ! 



Streams from Lebanon 199 

Abi means Father; Ezer means treasure (Father of 
Treasures — Rich). These "Abi-Ezerites" are rich, 
always full. He "filleth thee with the finest of 
the wheat." (Psa. cxlvii, 14.) And not only that, 
they are fuller than full; they overflow the floors. 
The overflow blessing is to refresh those around 
us; the little we can hold we need for ourselves. 
Their mouths are full. "Open thy mouth wide, and 
I will fill it." (Psa. lxxxi, 10.) God fills the mouth 
by first filling the heart. "Out of the abundance of 
the heart the mouth speaketh." (Matt, xii, 34.) 

They are full of joy. "Now the God of hope fill 
you with all joy and peace in believing." (Rom. 
xv, 13.) One can not know peace and joy by try- 
ing to feel them, but by believing God. We have 
only one case in the Bible where a fellow wanted 
to go by feeling, and he was fooled. That was Isaac 
trying to feel of Esau. 

Now, peace and joy come by believing. Where 
faith is triumphant, joy is full, and peace "passeth 
understanding." Furthermore, they are filled with 
the Spirit. 

They are filled above measure. "God giveth not 
the Spirit by measure." (John iii, 34.) They en- 
joy "good measure, pressed down, and shaken to- 



200 Streams from Lebanon 

gether, and running over" (Luke vi, 38.) They 
are the recipients of the uncontainable "blessing." 
(Mai. iii, 10.) "Their cup runneth over." (Psa. 
xxiii, 5.) They are rilled with "light" (Luke xi, 
34-36), and with "power." (Micah iii, 8.) With 
"wisdom." (Col. i, 9, 10.) With "knowledge." 
(1 Cor. ii, 12.) With "righteousness." (Matt, v, 
6.) With "peace." (Rom. xv, 13.) With "joy." 
(Acts ii, 28.) With "goodness." (Rom. xv, 14.) 
With "grace and truth." John i, 16, 17.) With all 
the fulness of God. (Eph. iii, 19.) 

Then, again, they are filled with the fruit of 
righteousness. 

"Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, 
which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise 
of God." (Phil, i, 11.) 

"And it shall be, when thou art come in unto the 
land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an in- 
heritance, and possessest it, and dwellest therein; 
that thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of 
the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy land that 
the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a 
basket, and shalt go unto the place which the Lord 
thy God shall choose to place His name there. And 
thou shalt go unto the priest that shall be in those 



Streams from Lebanon 201 

days, and say unto him, I profess this day unto the 
Lord thy God, that I am come unto the country 
which the Lord sware unto our fathers for to give 
us." (Deut. xxvi, 3.) 

We see by the above Scripture, that we are to 
have on exhibition a sample of the fruit all the 
time; and, furthermore, we are to profess with our 
mouths as well. Now, some people say just live it, 
but don't say anything about it; but this says we 
are to profess with our mouths, and not only that, 
but we are to go to the preacher "that shall be in 
those days," and say it unto him; and to all the 
places where the Lord shall choose to have it told. 
We are to profess in this land as well as possess. 

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, 
longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meek- 
ness, temperance: against such there is no law." 
(Gal. v, 22.) Here is a basket well filled with the 
various fruit of the land. 

In John xv, 8, we read that discipleship is based 
on fruit-bearing: "Herein is my Father glorified, 
that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my dis- 
ciples." O, reader, it is your blessed privilege to 
be filled with the fruit of the land, and keep it on 
exhibition the year round. Truly the people that 



202 Streams from Lebanon 

dwell in the land are a rilled people, and are cele- 
brating (showing off) every day in the year. Lord, 
increase the number. Amen. 

A CONQUERING PEOPLE. 

God's holy people will rob that king of terrors, 
Death, of half his spoils, by hastening from con- 
flict to conflict ; and from triumph to triumph, they 
will strew their lives through the years with dying, 
mostly done before death is aware of it, leaving 
this ruthless conqueror conquered, down to the 
mockery of killing a shadow. 

The dear Lord will take His faithful children 
out of the world when they leave. Out of pity for 
their exhaustion, He will say to His angels: 
"Bring that hard worker out of My vineyard home 
to rest. I see him trembling on his staff; having 
spent the years in My service, bring him home to 
My throne that I may say, 'Well done, good and 
faithful servant; enter into thy joy, and sit down 
on My throne.' " The angels will take him with 
sweat on his brow, his limbs trembling, but the 
enemy's darts shaking from his armor. And sup- 
pose he is out of breath, and it requires angel's 
wings to fan him through into the upper tides : 



Streams from Lebanon 203 

odors from the cinnamon-groves of the New Jeru- 
salem shall bring us to, and eternity shall suffice 
for an eternal rest. Glory to God, we are more 
than conquerors through life, and know no defeat 
in death ! 

Home at last. The voyage is over, the tempest 
hushed, the soul soothed; no more heart-aches; no 
more tired and wearied bodies ; no more disappoint- 
ments; no more thorns to be extracted. Blessed 
rest from earth's toils! Let the night swoop on, 
and the Euroclydon toss the sea. Let the thunders 
roar; all is well, — safe at last. 

Christ in the heavens to lead the way ; His arms 
inclose us ; His grace comforts us ; His light cheers 
us ; His glory enchants us ; His presence satisfies us. 

Standing with us in the morning of the day that 
knows no night, He will lead us on up, and out to- 
ward the noonday meridian of that world whose 
luster shall never fade, but shine the more, as the 
measureless expanse of eternity shall roll on and on. 

A RICH PEOPLE. 

"And I will give thee the treasures of darkness 
and hidden riches of secret places that thou mayest 
know that I, the Lord which call thee by thy name, 



204 Streams from Lebanon 

am the God of Israel." (Isa. xlv, 3.) Here we are 
promised hidden riches and treasures of darkness. 
The most valuable treasures we have, come from 
the dark mine ; and it requires sacrifice and toil to 
come in possession of them, and men of this world 
spare no pains to find them. So God would have 
us understand, if we want the riches of His king- 
dom, we must go down in His mine and toil. The 
person that digs long and deep is the one that 
brings up the nuggets of gold when he comes forth. 

Reader, are you willing, as it were, to put on old 
clothes, take your pick and shovel, go down in the 
dark and work in the damp mine, and risk every- 
thing to gain the eternal riches that never fade? 
Jesus says the "children of this world are wiser 
than the children of light." He meant by that the 
world puts forth every effort to get along and to 
get rich. They go early and late, when they are 
tired and when they don't feel like it, and some- 
times when all hope seems to be gone, and every 
avenue and channel to success appears to be cut 
off, yet they push forward to victory. And if one 
fails in business he don't stop; it only makes him 
more determined than ever to succeed. 

May God help us to see that we have just what 



Streams from Lebanon 205 

we are living for; and to the extent that we are 
laying ourselves out to obtain the eternal riches do 
we possess them. Our faith is the measuring-line 
to our experience. 

"Riches and honor are with me: yea, durable 
riches and righteousness. My fruit is better than 
gold, yea, than fine gold: and my revenue than 
choice silver. I lead in the way of righteousness in 
the midst of the paths of judgment, that I may 
cause those that love me to inherit substance, and I 
will fill their treasures." (Prov. viii, 18-21.) 

"But my God shall supply all your need accord- 
ing to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." (Phil, 
iv, 19.) 

If we need grace, He has it in plenty. "And 
God is able to make all grace abound toward you, 
that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, 
may abound to every good work." (2 Corr. ix, 8.) 

Do we need more mercy and love for others? 
He is rich toward us in it. "But God who is rich 
in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved 
us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened 
us together with Christ." (Eph. ii, 4, 5.) 

Do we need wisdom? It comes from above: 
"But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, 



206 Streams from Lebanon 

then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full 
of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and 
without hypocrisy." (James iii, 17.) 

This wisdom is hidden from the princes of this 
world: "But we speak the wisdom of God in a 
mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God or- 
dained before the world unto our glory, which none 
of the princes of this world knew." (1 Cor. ii, 

7,8.) 

Notice whom this wisdom is hid from : "In that 
hour Jesus rejoiced in Spirit, and said, I thank 
thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that 
Thou hast hid these things from the wise and pru- 
dent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, 
Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight." (Luke 
x, 21.) 

Not only are these riches hid from the world, but 
He likens us to treasures, and we are hid: "And 
they shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in the 
day when I make up My jewels, and I will spare 
them as a man spareth his own son that serveth 
him." (Mai. iii, 17.) "Jewels" in the margin is 
"treasures;" not only treasures, but special 

TREASURES. 



Streams from Lebanon 207 

"Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, 
and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar 
treasure unto Me above all people : for all the earth 
is Mine." (Ex. xix, 5.) 



A HIDDEN PEOPLE. 

I. TROUBLE. 

"For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in 
His pavilion, in the secret of His tabernacle shall 
He hide me: He shall set me up upon a rock." 
(Psa. xxvii, 5.) Pie has a secret way of hiding His 
people in the time of trouble. He don't say that 
we shall have no trouble, but He will hide us in it 
when it comes. God's holy people in Canaan are 
not exempt from troubles and trials and testings, 
but they have perfect deliverance through, and in 
them all. 

Then again: "Thou are my hiding-place: Thou 
shalt preserve me from trouble: Thou shalt com- 
pass me about with songs of deliverance." Psa. 
xxxii, 7.) Not only delivered, but singing through 
it all. It is one thing to drag through trials, but 
quote another to "prance" through, and come out 
with banners flying and more courageous than ever, 
and better equipped for the next battle. "And now 
shall my head be lifted up above mine enemies 
round about me. Therefore will I offer in His 
208 



Streams from Lebanon 209 

tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will 
sing praises unto the Lord." (Psa. xxvii, 6, 7.) 

II. HID FROM THE PRIDE OF MAN. 

"Thou shalt hide them in the secret of Thy 
presence from the pride of man : Thou shalt keep 
them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of 
tongues." (Psa. xxxi, 20.) "Thou shalt be hid 
from the scourge of the tongue: neither shalt thou 
be afraid of destruction when it cometh." (Job 
v, 21.) 

Thank God, He hides us until the pride of man 
don't bother us, and there is not a tongue long 
enough in the neighborhood to reach us. 

III. HID FROM THE WICKED AND OUR DEADLY 
ENEMIES. 

"Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under 
the shadow of Thy wings, from the wicked that 
oppress me, from my deadly enemies who compass 
me about." (Psa. xvii, 8, 9.) 

Our enemies are all about us on every side ready 
to devour us, but our refuge is under "His wings." 
(Psa. lvii, 1.) "He shall cover thee with His 
feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust; His 



210 Streams from Lebanon 

truth shall be thy shield and buckler." (Psa. xci, 
4.) Here is the picture of the little chick when it 
nestles under the wing of its mother when it antici- 
pates any danger, and sticks its head out tnrougii 
the feathers to see what is going on outside. 

And He promises "to him that overcometh will I 
give to eat of the hidden manna, and I will give 
him a white stone, and in the stone a new name 
written which no man knoweth saving he that re- 
ceiveth it." (Rev. ii, 17.) White is the emblem of 
purity; stone means solidity. Note, He gives us to 
eat of the hidden manna. This manna is only given 
to those who are hid. 

The people who are hid with Christ share the 
white stone. Their garments are white: "And to 
her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine 
linen, clean and white; for the fine linen is the 
righteousness of the saints." (Rev. xix, 8.) Not 
only are their clothes white, but they are white. 
"Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." 
(Psa. Ii, 7.) "Her Nazarites were purer than snow, 
they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy 
in body than rubies, their polishing was of sap- 
phire." (Lam. iv, 7.) To be white is quite signifi- 
cant. It takes seven colors to make white ; viz., red, 



Streams from Lebanon 211 

orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. The 
number seven is a perfect Bible number — symbolic. 
Just as it requires the full number of these colors 
to constitute white, so the inhabitant of Canaan 
has all the ingredients of the thirteenth chapter of 
First Corinthians in his heart, and when the prism 
(the Holy Ghost) divides or searches out His heart, 
every part stands out in full to make the beautiful, 
perfect love (white) that Paul tells us is superior 
to everything else. In fact, it takes all the lesser 
things to constitute what the thirteenth chapter of 
First Corinthians was designed to teach — Perfect 
Love. The people that have this beautiful pearl of 
great price are in possession of eternal riches that 
shall never perish or fade with the using. 

"Riches in glory, O what a thought ! 
Jesus' own blood this wealth for us bought; 
He became poor so we might be made 
Heirs to the joy that never will fade. 

Riches in glory, O what a store ! 

Treasures the soul can never deplore ; 

E'en while we bear the cross and its shame, 

Riches in glory gladly we claim. 



212 Streams from Lebanon 

Riches in glory for you and for me, 
What a delight the visions we see ! 
Pilgrims to-day as strangers we're known, 
While unto God we're heirs to a throne. 

Riches in glory, riches in glory, 
Riches in glory to meet every need ; 

Riches in glory, riches in glory, 
Royal supply our wants to exceed." 

Dear reader, check on Heaven's Bank this min- 
ute for all your need. If your deposits are in, 
your checks will be honored. "The blessing of the 
Lord, it maketh rich and addeth no sorrow." 



A DELIVERED PEOPLE. 

God has so constituted us that we abhor bondage 
of any kind. The admonition of Paul is to stand 
fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us 
free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of 
bondage. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there 
is liberty." "If the Son therefore shall make you 
free, you shall be free indeed." "The fear of man 
bringeth a snare." 

In Luke i, 73-75, we find that He says, "The 
oath that He sware to our father Abraham, that 
He would grant unto us, that we, being delivered 
out of the hands of our enemies, might serve Him 
without fear, in holiness and righteousness before 
Him, all the days of our life." "Now, the enemies 
of a man are those of his own house." (Micah. vii, 
6.) Here is a promise of our Father to deliver us 
out of the hands of our enemies in order that we 
may serve Him without fear, in holiness, all the 
days of our life. 

The greatest enemy of man is the devil. While 
we are not fully delivered from his presence and 

213 



214 Streams from Lebanon 

being, in this world, yet we are delivered from his 
power. "We know that whosoever is born of God 
. . . keepeth himself, and that wicked one 
toucheth him not." (i John v, 18.) 

To enjoy the Canaan experience does not exempt 
one from the assaults and temptations of the devil ; 
but it does mean deliverance and victory through 
them all. Jesus was tempted in all points like as 
we are. "He suffered being tempted." Of course, 
the devil will come along and throw his old black 
wing over us, and try to make us think we are 
backslidden; but that is the time to exercise faith. 
He will bring up some evil imagination, and then 
accuse us, and try to make it appear that it is ours. 

Now, there is a vast difference between thoughts 
of sin and sinful thoughts. One is like the tramp 
knocking at the door for admittance, and the other 
is like the tramp already admitted, and eating at 
the table. If the devil brings his children around 
to my back door-step, and leaves them, I just open 
the door and sweep them out, all the while singing 
some favorite holiness song. I don't take them in, 
and raise them, and feed them until they can run 
alone; no, never. And just so with wicked 
thoughts: we don't have to admit them into our 



Streams from Lebanon 215 

lily-white hearts to contaminate them. Hallelujah! 
It is no bad omen to be tempted and tried ; on the 
other hand, it is good evidence that the devil hasn't 
got you. 

Jesus says, in Matt, x, 36, that "A man's foes 
shall be they of his own household." Thank God, 
we can have a full deliverance from the people. 
Acts xxvi, 17: "Delivering thee from the people," 
etc. Not only are we delivered from the people, 
but from this world. Gal. i, 4 : "Who gave Himself 
for our sins, that He might deliver us from this 
present evil world, according to the will of God our 
Father." "Because he hath set his love upon me, 
therefore will I deliver him : I will set him on high, 
because he hath known My name. He shall call 
upon Me, and I will answer him : I will be with him 
in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him." 
(Psa. xci, 14, 15.) Delivered from darkness. (Col. 
i, 13.) Delivered from fear of death. (Heb. ii, 
15J Past, present, and future deliverance from 
this monster. 

Our freedom and liberty has been purchased with 
the price of blood. Deliverance is ours, from every 
foe. But a great many people are like the old 
colored lady that was working away in slavery, and 



216 Streams from Lebanon 

hadn't heard that the slaves were set free. When 
the gentleman approached her and told her she had 
been freed, she exclaimed, "No, sah; Ise not free;" 
and she wasn't from the simple fact that she had 
not declared her freedom, although it had been 
obtained. A great many people today are in bond- 
age, whose liberty has been given and could be had 
by the taking of it. 

Then, again, they are delivered from the "carnal 
mind," "the Old Man," "the sin that dwelleth in 
us," etc. "Knowing this, that our old man is cruci- 
fied with him, that the body of sin might be de- 
stroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." 
(Rom. vi, 6.) Then, if we are not to serve sin any 
longer, we are not to be in bondage to it. To serve, 
in this sense, means to slave. Thank God, we are 
slaves no longer, but set scott-free. "But now being 
made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye 
have your fruit unto holiness, and the end ever- 
lasting life." (Rom. vi, 22.) 

The people in Canaan are a delivered, therefore 
a free, people. 

"Their chains have been broken, 
Their freedom is spoken, 
And now Jesus calls them His own." 



A FREE PEOPLE. 

Free from the "devil." (i John v, 18.) Free 
from "sin." (Rom. vi, 22.) Free from "condem- 
nation." (Rom. viii, 1.) Free from "darkness." 
(Col. i, 13.) Free from "heaviness." (Isa. lxi, 3.) 
Free from "fear." (1 John iv, 18.) Free from 
"doubts." (Heb. vi, 17, 18.) Free from "dis- 
couragement." (Isa. liv, 17.) Free from "de- 
spondency." (Isa. xxxv, 10.) Free from "despair." 
(2 Cor. iv, 8.) Free from "death." (Psa. lvi, 13.) 

Dear reader, it is your blessed privilege to be 
free, full, fat, flourishing, and forever on the victory 
side. But remember the way to it all is through 
the gate of faith. 



217 



A FLOURISHING PEOPLE. 

"The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: 
he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that 
be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish 
in the courts of our God. They shall still bring 
forth fruit in old age ; they shall be fat and flourish- 
ing." (Psa. xcii, 12-14.) Here is another picture 
of God's people in the land, and God has hung it 
out in the picture-gallery for us to look at. Now, 
take a good look at it, and you will see it stretching 
out and down through life, from the early morning 
of planting to the evening of old age. 

God's holy people are likened to trees in this 
picture : 

"The trees of the Lord are full of sap ; the cedars 
of Lebanon, which He hath planted." (Psa. civ. 
16.) What the sap is to the trees, the Spirit is to 
the Christian. The tree that is full of sap is green 
and flourishing, and the Christian that is filled with 
the Spirit is flourishing, spreading out, and taking 
on new life. "Shall flourish like the palm-tree." 
The palm-tree is said to be the most useful tree in 

218 



Streams from Lebanon 219 

the world, there being not a particle of it but is put 
to some useful purpose. It will live in a climate 
where no other tree will grow. In the blistering 
sands of the great deserts it will push its roots 
down till it strikes water, and will multiply its green 
foliage, and make it possible for other things to 
grow, and soon it has gathered around it quite a 
little family, and the beautiful oasis, with its green 
verdure, inviting shade, sparkling fountains, and 
singing birds, is the traveler's paradise. So a Spirit- 
filled Christian, in the world's great deserts of 
worldliness, formality, and sin, can prosper and 
thrive and gather round it an atmosphere of holi- 
ness and heaven, and be a blessing to the weary 
traveler on his march to the judgment. 

O, that we may see the possibilities of grace that 
lie out before us ! The unbounded, unwasted full- 
ness, unlimited and unexplored territory that is 
ours, can never be realized until we take possession 
and move out into the land farther than we have 
ever been. 'There remaineth yet very much land 
to be possessed." (Josh, xiii, 1.) 

O, for a faith in God's holy people that "laughs 
at impossibilities, and cries, It must be done," and 
that knows no defeat, and is a stranger to dis- 



220 Streams from Lebanon 

couragement ; one that is the admiration of angels, 
and the chagrin of devils; that makes heaven re- 
joice, and hell mourn; one that climbs over circum- 
stances, environments, surroundings, and that 
scales the battlements of hell's fortifications, and 
plants heaven's flag on the devil's territory, and 
takes possession! 



"ABSTAIN FROM ALL APPEARANCE OF 
EVIL." 

We are exhorted in ist Thess. 5th Chapter and 
twenty-second verse to "abstain from all appear- 
ance of evil." 

This word abstain comes from the Greek word 
"Apecho" which means to be distant from, to draw 
back, to retire, to forsake, turn away, etc., etc. 

This same word is used in the first chapter of Job 
and the first verse, quoting from the old Septuagint 
it reads, he was "True, blameless, righteous, and 
godly, abstaining from everything evil." 

The true principle of holiness is to hate all forms 
of evil with a vehement hatred. 

This principle is planted in the regenerate heart. 
The man who is converted hates every form of evil 
and turns away therefrom. 

Some people approach too near the crater of 
temptation and fall in. Others see how near they 
may go and not fall. In other words they tempt 
the devil to tempt them. People play with tempta- 
tion and trifle with it as though it did not amount to 

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222 Streams from Lebanon 

much after all, only to wake up and find when it is 
too late that they are backslidden in heart and peace 
departed. 

Many feel, when temptation approaches, that they 
are strong enough to resist it and do not take the 
precaution they should to turn away at the first 
approach, and the consequences are they are over- 
come and helpless in the power of the enemy before 
they know it, and sin. 

"Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest 
he fall." 



VICTORY OVER DEATH. 

The final change is here. The icy hand of death 
is on my brow. Like a frail bark coasting between 
two shores I am drifting so near the other side as 
to brush the deep shades of the brink of an awful 
Eternity. How the estimates change down on these 
solemn confines, where hope of the world is wrecked 
and sandy foundations give way. 

Conscience, forestalling judgment day, lays right- 
eousness to the line and judgment to the plummet. 
The balances are seen tipping in God's hand. Riches 
take wings and fly away. All that the world calls 
good and great turns pale here. The vain pomp 
and show of the world is chaffy and worthless. 

This is the place needing the fewest arguments 
in favor of Holiness outside of hell. Holiness is 
popular here. It is at this station called death that 
the sterling worth of Christian coin begins to ring. 
Here is where I take up the glad refrain of the 
ages, "O death, where is thy sting?" "I have 
fought the good fight, I have kept the faith." 

To arrive on schedule time according to God's 

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224 Streams from Lebanon 

time-table, I have gone the highway of the King. I 
have met heroes, seers and saints. The mighty 
angels of God have walked with me. The clamor 
of high battles and the shouts of new-born souls 
have cheered me on. Sometimes I have crossed 
raging torrents, ran along awful chasms, heard the 
mighty thunders of Jehovah, climbed the mountains, 
ran the way of the plains, again through green 
pastures and beside still waters; but I am here. 
Thou conquered enemy ! Thou art to the saints of 
God the last touch of the sculptor's chisel. Thou 
art the door that opens into a morning that knows 
no night. Thy sting is gone, thy terror flown, all 
because of JESUS. 



CHRISTMAS EVE. 

Christmas Eve! and a blustery night — 
Snow-flurries almost blinding the sight; 
Eddying winds shift to and fro 
And toss from the chimneys, smoke-clouds low. 

On the street is heard a noisy throng 
Of pleasure-bent shoppers hurrying along, 
Laden with bundles and baskets and toys 
To gladden the hearts of girls and boys. 

Let the wintry winds moan on, and sigh 
Through the forests, and sing their lullaby ; 
'Neath holly-wreathed branch and mistletoe 
I rest and sleep while the tempests blow. 

Christmas Eve ! and the sound of bells 
Yuletide harmonies break and swell, 
And sing of a babe in Bethlehem 
Born in a manger, — the Savior of men. 

With the swing of years and march of time 
Each Christmastide grows more sublime, 
Pointing to Jesus of Bethlehem, 
Born in a manger, the Savior of men. 

225 



LIFE'S BRIEF DAY. 

Like weaver's shuttles rapid flight, 

My days are swiftly run. 
At best; life's span is but a day, 

And e'er I'm full awake and fair begun 
Lo ! I'm called away. 

Our words our actions yea, 

A mint of things, 
We daily do and plume 

With wings to fly away ; 
Will meet us all again. 

We tread this path but once ; 

Nor ere return, 
To right some wrong we should have spurned, 

Or chance it be a word, a look, a frown ; 
When once afloat 'tis hard to drown. 

With jealous vigil thou my soul, well guard; 

The wealth of every moment, 
Nor retard, the progress God would have thee make 

Till in his likeness, 
Satisfied; thou shalt wake. 

226 



SANCTIFICATION A SECOND WORK OF 
GRACE. 

It is almost universally agreed among professing 
Christians that we must be holy to enter heaven. 

But as to how and when and where we are made 
holy differences of opinion arise. 

Of course, any work of grace will arouse an- 
tagonism, but there seems to be nothing that stirs 
the depths of the carnal mind like the doctrine of 
entire sanctification as a work of grace wrought in 
the believer's heart subsequent to regeneration. 

The Methodist Catechism, on page 14, asks the 
question, "What is sanctification?" 

Ans. "Sanctification is that act of divine grace 
whereby we are made holy." Then the following 
Scriptures are given: 1st Thess. 5-23; Eph., 1-4; 
Col., 1-22; Heb., 13-12. 

The above Scriptures plainly teach that it is the 
Christian and not the sinner who is to be sanctified. 

Then the next question settles it forever to the 
fair-minded seeker of truth. 
227 



228 Streams from Lebanon 

"May EVERY BELIEVER be wholly sanctified 
in this life?" 

Ans. "Yes ; God's command is, 'Be ye holy, for 
I am holy.' " 

Here the teachings of the Methodist church is 
that EVERY BELIEVER can and ought to be 
wholly sanctified in this life. 

Now, if believers are to be sanctified it certainly 
is clear that they are to receive a second work of 
grace in their hearts. They already have unques- 
tionably one work of grace in their hearts, other- 
wise they would not be BELIEVERS. To this 
teaching the dictionaries of the country agree. The 
Standard Dictionary on the word sanctification says, 
"To make holy; cleanse from all sin. Specifically 
in Theology: The gracious work of the Holy 
Spirit whereby the BELIEVER is freed from sin, 
and exalted to holiness of heart and life." The 
American Encyclopedia on the same word says, 
"To make holy or sacred ; to purify from sin. Tech- 
nically, an operation of the Spirit of God, Romans, 
15-16, ON THOSE WHO ARE ALREADY IN 
JESUS, i. e., are united to him by faith." 

The proof of the need of another work of grace 
in the hearts of Christians is found in the writings 



Streams from Lebanon 229 

cf the standard authors, articles of religion, and 
creeds of every branch of the Christian Church. 

The very fact that provision is made in their 
declarations of faith for the removal of SIN in the 
near, or remote future, is unquestionably proof of 
the fact that they recognize a sinful nature or prin- 
ciple left in the regenerated soul. 

Dr. Pendleton, the most orthodox of Baptists, 
who is authority both in England and America, in 
his "Christian Doctrines," a compendium of their 
theology, on page 300 on sanctification, has this to 
say: "Regeneration breaks the power of sin and 
destroys the love of sin, so that whoever is born 
of God doth not commit sin in the sense of being 
the slave thereof; but it does not free the soul from 



THE PRESENCE AND POLLUTION OF SIN. 

"Alas! the regenerate know full well that sin is 
in their hearts. This accounts for the Christian 
warfare." 

Here is the recognition of a something left in 
the heart of the BELIEVER. 

The eradication of that something that Dr. Pen- 
dleton calls "the essence and pollution of sin" is 
what Mr. Wesley termed the second blessing 
properly so called, or, in other words, a second 
work of grace. 

Whether a person gets rid of sin at death, or by 
growth, or by good works, or no matter how, it is 
a second work. 

But the Bible nowhere tells us that death will 
sanctify us. Neither does it say that growth will 
do the work. But it does say repeatedly that the 
blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse us from all sin. 

Back of the overt act is the invert state. God will 
not only pardon our transgressions, but He will 

230 



Streams from Lebanon 231 

take out of the heart that that caused the trans- 
gression. 

In other words, He will not only sweep out the 
cobweb, but He will kill the spider that made the 
web. 

That cannot be evolved which has not been in- 
volved. 

It is impossible to live a holy life until we are 
made holy. 

No one can live it until God does the work in 
their hearts, and then it is perfectly easy to live 
out that which is in. 

Some say that Mr. Wesley changed his view of 
sanctification prior to his death. But to this we 
have abundant proof to the contrary. 

He died in the year 1791. Some of his opponents 
claim he repudiated the doctrine in the year 1784. 

A foot note by the Church Editor on the first 
page of "Christian Perfection" says : "It is not to 
be understood that Mr. Wesley's sentiments con- 
cerning Christian Perfection were in any measure 
changed after the year 1777. 

In the year 1785 he wrote, in Vol. VII, page 184: 
"And it will be well as soon as any of them find 
peace with God to exhort them to 'GO ON TO 



232 Streams from Lebanon 

PERFECTION !' The more explicitly and strongly 
you press all BELIEVERS to aspire after FULL 
SANCTIFICATION as attainable now by simple 
faith, the more the whole work of God will prosper." 



SOME REASONS FOR OUR SANCTIFICA- 
TION. 

Text — "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts ; 
and be ready always to give an answer to every 
man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is 
in you with meekness and fear." (i Peter 3:15.) 

I. IT IS THE WILL OF GOD. 

"For this is the will of God even your sancti- 
fication." (1 Thess. 4:3.) It may not be the will 
of some of our friends, nor the will of some of our 
enemies; but it is the will of God. 

"By the which will we are sanctified through 
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for 
all." (Heb. 10:10.) 

'Then said he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God." 
(Heb. 10:9.) Paul exhorts us to prove what is 
that good, and acceptable and perfect will of God. 
(Rom. 12:2.) He also speaks of doing the will of 
God from the heart. (Eph. 6:6.) In Col. 4:12, 
he says, "That ye may stand complete in all the 

233 



234 Streams from Lebanon 

will of God." John says that "if any man will do 
His will he shall know of the doctrine." (John 
j:j.) In i John 2:17, we read, "He that doeth the 
will of God abideth forever." 

2. IT IS THE PROVISION OF GOD. 

"For by one offering He hath perfected forever 
them that are sanctified; whereof the Holy Ghost 
also is a witness to us." (Heb. 10:14-15.) "By 
the which will we are sanctified through the offer- 
ing of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." (Heb. 
10:10.) "Wherever Jesus (also) that He might 
sanctify the people with His own blood suffered 
without the gate." (Heb. 13:12.) 

We see by the above Scriptures that God has not 
only willed our sanctification, but He has made 
adequate provision for it. 

3. IT IS THE CALL OF GOD. 

"For God called us not for uncleanness, but in 
sanctification." (1 Thess. 4:7.) (R. V.) 

"And the God of peace Himself sanctify you 
wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body 
be preserved entire, without blame at the coming 
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth 



Streams from Lebanon 235 

you, who will also do it." (1 Thess. 5:23-24.) 
(R. V.) ''But we are bound to give thanks to God 
always for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, for 
that God chose you from the beginning unto salva- 
tion in sanctification of the spirit and belief of the 
truth; whereunto He called you." 2 Thess. 2:13- 
14.) (R. V.) 

"But like as He which called you is holy, be ye 
yourselves also holy in all manner of living; be- 
cause it is written, Ye shall be holy ; for I am holy." 
(1 Pet. 1:15-16.) (R. V.) 

Not only does He will it and provide it and call 
us to it; but He commands it. 

4. IT IS THE COMMAND OF GOD. 

"Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God." 
(Deut. 18:13.) "Be ye therefore perfect, even as 
your Father which is in heaven is perfect." (Matt. 
5 48.) "Ye shall be holy ; for I am holy." ( 1 Pet. 
1:16.) 

Reader, if we keep God's commandments we will 
get sanctified. Jesus says, "If ye love Me ye will 
keep My commandments." (John 14:15.) (R. V.) 
"His commandments are not grievous." (1 John 

5:3-) 

Not only does He command it, but He promises it. 



236 Streams from Lebanon 

5. IT IS THE PROMISE OF GOD. 

"And, behold, I send the promise of My Father 
upon you; but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, 
until ye be endued with power from on high." 
(Luke 24:49.) 

"And being assembled together with them com- 
manded them that they should not depart from 
Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, 
which saith He, ye have heard of Me." (Acts 
1 4.) "Then said Peter unto them, Repent and be 
baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus 
Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive 
the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is 
unto you, and to your children, and to all that are 
afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall 
call." (Acts 2:38-39.) 

"But this is that which was spoken by the prophet 
Joel: 

And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith 
God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: 
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, 
and your young men shall see visions, and your 
old men shall dream dreams. 

And on my servants and on my handmaidens I 



Streams from Lebanon 237 

will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they 
shall prophesy." (Acts 2:16-18.) 

Then again we read in John's gospel in the 14th 
chapter in the 16th, 17th and in the 26th verses of 
the promise — 

"And I will pray the Father, and He shall give 
you another Comforter, that he may abide with you 
forever : 

Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world can- 
not receive, because it seeth Him not, neither 
knoweth Him ; but ye know Him ; for He dwelleth 
with you, and shall be in you. 

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, 
whom the Father will send in my name, He shall 
teach you all things, and bring all things to your 
remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." 

The above Scriptures are too plain to be misun- 
derstood. 

6. JESUS SHED HIS BLOOD FOR IT. 

"For this purpose was the Son of God manifested, 
that He might destroy the works of the devil." 
(1 John 3:8.) That was the object of the death of 
Jesus on the cross; that He might destroy sin out 
of the heart. "Wherefore Jesus also, that He might 



238 Streams from Lebanon 

sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered 
without the gate." (Heb. 13:12.) 

7. JESUS PRAYED FOR IT. 

In His valedictory prayer just prior to His ascen- 
sion He not only prayed for His disciples to be 
sanctified; but He prayed for all believers of all 
ages. "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them 
also which shall believe on Me through their word." 
(John 17:20.) Not only so, but He taught in the 
disciples prayer that He delivered to His immediate 
followers, "When ye pray, say Our Father who art 
in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom 
come, Thy will be done." The will of God is our 
sanctification. 

8. HE SENT THE HOLY GHOST TO BESTOW IT. 

"He shall give you another Comforter." "Ye 
shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is 
come upon you." "But ye shall be baptized with 
the Holy Ghost not many days hence." "And they 
were all filled with the Holy Ghost." They were all 
filled with the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost 
and received pure hearts. "And God, which know- 



Streams -from Lebanon 239 

eth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the 
Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us ; 

And put no difference between us and them, 
purifying their hearts by faith." (Acts 15:8-9.) 

In the above Scripture Peter virtually says that 
the reception of the Holy Ghost is the source or 
cause of a pure heart. Hence when one is baptized 
with the Holy Ghost the heart is purified. 

The office of the Holy Spirit in this world is not 
only to convict the sinner of his sins, and to re- 
generate the soul, but also to sanctify the heart and 
make it pure. The Holy Ghost is given to those 
who obey Him. And we are His witnesses of these 
things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God 
hath given to them that obey Him." (Acts 5:32.) 

9. THE UNION OF THE CHURCH DEPENDS UPON IT. 

"And now I am no more in the world, but these 
are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, 
keep through Thine own name those whom Thou 
hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. 

And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they 
also might be sanctified through the truth. 

Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also 
which shall believe on Me through their words. 

That they all may be one. (John 17:11, 19:21.) 



240 Streams from Lebanon 

10. THE SALVATION OF THE WORLD DEPENDS UPON IT. 

"That they also may be one in Us ; that the world 
may believe that Thou hast sent Me." 

"And the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, 
saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in 
you before their eyes." (Ezekiel 36:23.) 

11. FINAL APOSTASY, AND NO SEEING GOD WITHOUT 

IT. 

"Follow after peace with all men, and the sancti- 
fication without which no man shall see the Lord." 
(Heb. 12:14.) (R. V.) 

If God the Father wills it, and Jesus died to 
provide it, and the Holy Ghost was given to bestow 
it; then it should, and does command, and demand, 
the respect and prayerful attention of every child 
of God in this world who expects to see Him in 
peace. Reader, think on these things. 



REVERIE OF A LOST SOUL. 

I am nearing the gates of death. Shadows full 
of phantom shapes stare at me on every side. 

Images of terror rise and beckon me on. Deeds 
of the past stretch out their bony hands to shove 
me into the vortex of a hungry hell whose flames 
leap out to meet me at my coming. 

I am dying not unattended. Despair mocks me. 
Agony tenders to my burning and parched lips her 
fiery cup. Remorse feels for conscience to rend it, 
while regret clutches at the throat of memory. 

My guilty soul is swept on the billowy blast of 
damnation, where the rain of fire and hail of brim- 
stone in an horrible tempest roll the black crested 
waves tissued with fire on and on into the black- 
ness of darkness forever. Lost in the pathless void 
of eternal night, I am pushing on into the bound- 
less, bottomless, infinite darkness, where satyrs 
wielding thongs of forked flames flit and scream, 
where serpents sired in the black dungeons of inky 
damnation crawl, and hiss, and spurt their venom. 
241 



242 Streams from Lebanon 

With blistering feet, and swollen tongue, I press or? 
into greater misery. 

The streams I started in life of oaths, lies, gamb- 
ling, stealing, adultery, Sabbath desecration, drunk- 
enness all pour in on me now like so many black 
streams of fire. Here the outraged justice of a 
holy God lays on her fiery whip, while remorse plies 
her scorpion thongs. Surrounded by grimacing 
devils, howling fiends, and gnashing ghosts, I am 
tormented in this flame where the fearful and un- 
believing, the abominable, and murderers and 
whoremongers, and sorcerers and idolaters, and all 
liars have their part in the lake which burneth with 
fire and brimstone and drink of the wine of the 
wrath of God which is poured out without mixture, 
where they gnaw their tongue for pain and blas- 
pheme the God of heaven. 



ANOTHER GOSPEL. 

St. Paul makes no hesitation in pronouncing 
anathema on the persons who preach another Gos- 
pel. And as if to enforce what had been said on 
the subject, he a second time, after deliberation, in 
the ninth verse of the first chapter of Galatians 
repeats, "If any preach any other Gospel unto you 
than that ye have received, let him be accursed." 

How can we preach another Gospel? 

First. By preaching contrary to the plain writ- 
ten word. The Word declares that we are to be 
holy. The man who preaches otherwise preaches 
another Gospel. The Word further declares that 
we are to be saved from our sins. Whoever 
preaches that we cannot be saved from sin preaches 
another Gospel. 

The preacher who can be bribed, bought oil*, 
scared out, restrained, either by friends or enemies, 
so as not to preach "all the words of this life," 
preaches another Gospel. 

He who says that there are doctrines we do not 
understand, therefore we let them alone, also 

243 



244 Streams from Lebanon 

preaches another Gospel. Yes, but they are in the 
Book! And though we do not understand them, 
we are to preach the Word. If God said it that 
should be enough. What if we do have to plow up 
our beautiful little posy beds, and flower gardens 
of theology, and have to retrace and reconstruct, 
and take back and unlearn some things we have 
learned ? Go through with God ! Dare to stand by 
your convictions. Preach what you know of the 
truth the best you know how, and ask God for light 
and wisdom, and have enough sense to investigate 
the truth. If someone comes along who can show 
you the way of the Lord more perfectly, don't act 
as though everyone was wrong but you, and hold 
yourself away from the truth, but go in for all you 
can get out of His precious Word, and God will see 
that you travel a sure path. 

Then again : How can we preach another Gos- 
pel? 

Second. By bidding Godspeed to those who are 
unsound in doctrine and faith. Wherefore Paul 
says, "Rebuke them sharply that they may be sound 
in the faith." (Titus 1:13.) To uphold preachers, 
schools and institutions that are in error is to preach 
another Gospel. 



Streams from Lebanon 245 

Another Gospel is preached when men make the 
Word of God of no effect by their traditions. 
Traditions, customs and manners are things hard to 
part with in some quarters. Hear the withering re- 
buke: "Though we, or an angel from heaven, 
. . . let him be accursed." 

No matter how high the standing or great the 
popularity of the preacher, bid him not Godspeed 
unless he cleaves to the plain statement of the 
Word. Here is the great touchstone for the 
preacher: "If they preach not according to this 
Word, it is because there is no light in them." 

Listen to Paul again : "But as we were allowed 
of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so 
we speak, not as pleasing men, but God, which 
trieth our hearts." (1 Thess. 2:4.) 



CHRIST'S SECOND COMING. 

The coming of our Lord to this earth again is 
the pole-star of the church and the hope of His 
people. He is coming somebody's time, and in an 
hour when we think not. This precious truth 
sparkles throughout the Scripture, and is the linger- 
ing truth of St. John in the book of Revelation. 
Paul says to comfort one another with these words. 
The early church taught it, and to the extent that 
the modern church backslides and goes into world- 
liness, to that extent does this doctrine go into 
eclipse. The dark ages almost buried it, but of late 
the Church is being awakened on this subject. To 
believe and preach it puts one in good company. 
For one to say he believes Jesus is coming is neither 
more or less than to say he believes God's Word. 
To depart from the pre-millennial teaching of the 
book is to depart from the teaching of some of our 
most illustrious leaders of this or any other age. 

Both Samuel Wesley, the father of John Wesley, 
and John Wesley himself, were firm believers in 
the pre-millennial advent of Christ, as is conclu- 

246 



Streams from Lebanon 247 

sively shown by Mr. Tyerman in his able and popu- 
lar lives of those two men. 

Samuel Wesley, in an article published in the 
Athenian Gazette, of October 17, 1691, uses the 
following language : 

"We believe, as all Christians of the purest ages 
did, that the saints shall reign with Christ on earth 
a thousand years; that this reign shall be imme- 
diately before the general resurrection, and after 
the calling of the Jews, the fullness of the Gentiles, 
and the destruction of Anti-christ, whom our Savior 
shall destroy by the brightness of His coming and 
appearance in Heaven; that at the beginning of 
this thousand years shall be the first resurrection, 
wherein martyrs and holy men shall rise and reign 
here in spiritual delight in the New Jerusalem, in 
a new Heaven and a new earth, as foretold by the 
holy prophets. " 

John Wesley, on the receipt and perusal of Mr. 
Hartley's "Paradise Restored," in 1764, wrote to 
the author : 

"Your book on the millennium was lately put 
into my hands. I cannot thank you for your strong 
and seasonable confirmation of that comfortable 



248 Streams from Lebanon 

doctrine ; of which I cannot entertain the least doubt 
as long as I believe the Bible." 

In a letter to Dr. Middleton, published in 1749, 
John Wesley refers to the millennial creed of Justin 
Martyr, that at Christ's second coming the martyrs 
will be raised, and for a thousand years will reign 
with Christ in Jerusalem, which will then be rebuilt, 
enlarged and richly adorned, according to the proph- 
ets (Isa. 65th chap.) ; and that at the end of the 
thousand years there will be a universal resurrec- 
tion, in order to the final judgment. These were 
the views of Justin Martyr, which Wesley says 
Justin deduced from the prophets and the apostles, 
and which were also adopted by the fathers of the 
second and third centuries. 



THE MINISTRY OF SOLITUDE. 

Buried in the heart of nature's bosom we roam 
the woods, climb the mountains, thread the water 
courses, rest on the rocks and meditate on the 
goodness of God. For centuries the tooth of time 
has gnawed on the backs of these gray rocks of the 
Ozarks. How the omnipotence of God grows on 
the heart as we survey the mountains piled high, 
and how the infinite wisdom of design is seen on 
every hand, telling us that at some time one who 
thought has tarried here. Here we stand on that 
wondrous plain where mortality and immortality 
meet. Below us is the animal life, lighted by the 
dim lamp of instinct. Above is the mysterious 
world of imagination, whose rivers are dreams, 
whose continents are visions of rare beauty, and 
whose shadowy shores are lashed by the surfs of 
phantom seas forever. The spiritual life, illu- 
minated by the light of reason, brings us in touch 
with the Infinite. 

The cricket's song, the droll hum of the homing 
bee, the skimming swallow, the fluttering of the 

249 



250 Streams from Lebanon 

falling leaf, the tinkling of the cow bell down the 
valley, the beautiful horizon, the frolicksome squir- 
rel — in fact, all nature seems to harmonize and 
blend into one melodious voice to tell of the good- 
ness of God and His infinite wisdom in what He 
has wrought from the butterfly to the archangel. 

Stretched out on the ground flat on our back 
gazing into the heavens where in beautiful im- 
agery before us we see the shepherd with his fleecy 
flock grazing and moving over the hills and plains 
of azure. I dream and say, "What are you doing 
there, O clouds?" And they reply, "We are pre- 
paring a drink for that daisy." Then the wind 
rises and comes bending down the forest trees, and 
I cry, "Which way, O wind?" And it replies, "We 
are going to cool the cheek of that daisy," and I 
ask, "Will God take care of the grass of the field?" 
and the daisy at my feet replies, "Yes, He clothes 
the lilies of the field, and has never forgotten poor 
little me." 

I open my eyes and the glint of a whip-poor-will 
flashing a crescent over my head in the heavens 
tells me the change of season is upon us. I dream 
again and see spring with her lap filled with roses 



Streams from Lebanon 251 

and song birds, poising on wings that never weary. 
I hear her light-winged larks gladden the morning 
with song; summer strews the fields and plains 
with her golden sheaves; autumn with her laden 
boughs of ripened fruit, and winter, the white- 
bearded storm king, stands and offers his sacrifices 
of sleet, snow and rain at the altar of the coldest 
season. I sleep in peaceful slumber and dream of 
other days. I arise suddenly and rub my eyes and 
look around to see if someone has not awakened 
me. I meditate and pray, and lo ! the voice of song 
and prayer is heard from the distant camp ground, 
and I arise and wend my way back to my cabin and 
arrange for the service. 



THE SPIRIT OF EARLY METHODISM, HIS- 
TORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL. 

In 1790, the year before he died, Mr. Wesley 
wrote to Alexander Mather, "Give me one hun- 
dred preachers, who fear nothing but sin, and de- 
sire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether 
they be clergymen or laymen, such alone will shake 
the gates of hell, and set up a kingdom of heaven 
upon earth." Tyerman's life and times of Wesley, 
Vol. 3, page 632. 

He further in the same volume, page 586, says, 
"If ye substitute a silken gown and sash for rough 
garments and a leathern girdle, and call one another 
Rabbi ! Rabbi ! then the glory will depart from you 
and God will raise up another people. ,, 

Adam Clarke remarks in said volume, page 620, 
"He who preaches the gospel, as he ought, must do 
it with his whole strength of body and soul; and 
he who undertakes a labor of this kind thrice every 
Lord's day will infallibly shorten his life by it. 

"He who, instead of preaching, talks to the peo- 
ple — merely speaks about good things, or tells a 

252 



Streams from Lebanon 253 

religious story — will never injure himself by such 
an employment; but such a person does not labor 
in the word and doctrine; he tells his tale; and, as 
he preaches, so his congregation believes; and sin- 
ners are left as he found them." 

The Methodist fathers were self-sacrificing men, 
who possessed great virtues, and performed many 
heroic deeds. 

Robert Strawbridge, the apostle of Methodism 
in Maryland, is a name prominent in the early an- 
nals of American Methodism. We are indebted 
to Ireland for Robert Strawbridge, as well as for 
Philip Embury. It was Strawbridge who built the 
celebrated log meeting-house in Maryland, con- 
cerning which so much has been said and written 
and around which so many interests cluster. In 
those days Benjamin Abbott was as a torch in God's 
hand, blazing for Him and firing the country every- 
where he went. 

Boehm's Chapel, erected in 1791 (the year in 
which Wesley died), in Lancaster county, Penn- 
sylvania, was the storm center of many a battle 
in which these men were leaders. 

Abbott says, "At Boehm's we found a large con- 
gregation. When I came to my application, the 



254 Streams from Lebanon 

power of the Lord came in such a manner that the 
people fell all about the house, and their cries might 
be heard afar off. This alarmed the wicked, who 
sprang for the doors in such haste that they fell 
over one another in heaps. The cry of mourners 
was so great that I thought to give out a hymn to 
drown the noise, and desired one of our English 
friends to raise it; but as soon as he began to sing 
the power of the Lord struck him, and he pitched 
under the table and there lay like a dead man. I 
gave it out again and asked another to raise it and 
as soon as he attempted it he fell also. I then saw 
I was fighting against God and I did not attempt to 
sing again. 

Mr. Boehm, the owner of the house, and a Ger- 
man preacher, cried out : "I never saw God in this 
way before." 

Henry Boehm, in his description of the camp 
meetings on the Dover circuit, says, "It is now al- 
most impossible to realize what great times we had 
at our early camp meetings. They did much in 
breaking up the strongholds of the devil, and almost 
revolutionized the peninsula. They made as Bishop 
Asbury said, "Our harvest seasons." Among the 
Methodists, no gentlemen and ladies attended for 



Streams from Lebanon 255 

leisure, pleasure, or pure air ; but they went to work 
to save souls from death, and acted as if they had 
no other business. On June 11 we held our camp 
meeting on the Dover circuit. There were two 
hundred tents on the ground. 

Brother Alward White preached the first sermon 
from Neh. 4:10, on removing the rubbish so we 
shall be able to build the wall. On the first day 
forty-seven were converted and thirty-nine were 
sanctified. This is the way they looked for things 
in those days : while penitents were pardoned, the 
saints were purified. Friday morning Richard 
Lyon preached from Matt. 20:6, to idlers in God's 
vineyard. The mourners were invited to the altar. 
They came, and the work of God went on till 3 
o'clock, when James Aikens preached from Luke 
14:17, on the gospel feast. The work went on 
gloriously, and at sunset they reported one hundred 
converted and seventy-five sanctified. 

In the evening George Wooley preached from 
Isa. 28:17, on sweeping away the refuge of lies. 
The last refuge for sinners seemed to be swept 
away. The next morning they reported sixty-two 
converted and fifty-three sanctified. 

Thomas Boring preached on Saturday at 8 o'clock 



256 Streams from Lebanon 

from Rev. 3 :20, "Behold I stand at the door and 
knock," etc.; W. B. Lacy at 3 from Deut. 32:11, 
about "The eagle stirreth up her nest," etc.; Thos. 
Dunn in the evening from Psalm 145:19. There 
were one hundred and forty-six converted and 
seventy-six sanctified during the day. The next 
morning they reported one hundred and fifty-six 
converted and one hundred and sixteen sanctified 
during the night. 

Sabbath was a great day in Israel. Dr. Chandler 
preached in the morning at 10 from Isa. 11 .-9, "For 
the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord," 
etc. He could move the masses as the wind stirs 
the leaves on the trees. James Ridgeway at 3 in 
the afternoon from 1st Pet. 4:17: "What shall the 
end be of them that obey not the gospel ?" He was 
a powerful man at camp meetings. 

At sunset they reported three hundred and thirty- 
nine conversions and one hundred and twenty-two 
sanctified. What a Sababth ! Peter Vannest 
preached that evening at 8 and eighty-one were con- 
verted and sixty-eight sanctified. 

On Monday morning William Hardisty preached 
from Psalm 34:5; in the afternoon Brother Jack- 
son from Acts 3 : 19-20, on times of refreshing from 



Streams from Lebanon 257 

the^presence of the Lord, and James Herron 
preached in the evening. There were this day two 
hundred and sixty-four conversions and fifty sanc- 
tifications. 

On Tuesday morning the Lord's supper was ad- 
ministered. There was a most melting time. He 
then adds, "I have given this record just as is was 
written in 1806." (Boehm's Reminiscences.) 

He further says, "July 15th, the camp meeting 
commenced near Dover. For several days we had 
been preparing seats for six thousand persons. The 
people came in crowds. There were four hundred 
tents, wagons, and carts within the enclosure. Some 
slept in wagons, others in carts. On Thursday, 
John Chalmers, an old warrior, opened the cam- 
paign from Exod. 14:15, 'Speak unto the children 
of Israel that they go forward.' They did go for- 
ward with banners flying, and a shout was heard 
along the ranks of our Israel. 

The work of revival commenced in a powerful 
manner under the first sermon, and continued 
through the night. There were sixty-eight con- 
verted and twenty-nine sanctified. 

Sabbath was a high day in Zion. There were 
about ten thousand people on the ground. In the 



258 Streams from Lebanon 

morning Samuel Coate preached on John 3:17; 
John Chalmers preached in the afternoon, and 
Brother Ridgeway at night. One hundred and 
ninety-eight were converted and one hundred and 
sixty were sanctified. This was during the day. 
The work continued all night, and one hundred and 
twenty-seven were converted and one hundred 
were sanctified before the sun rose in the east." 

These are the exact words of Boehm in his 
journal, written in July, 1806. 

Thus the reader can catch a glimpse of the spirit 
of the early pioneer preachers. It seems that the 
dominant feature of all these exercises was the 
salvation of precious souls. How they toiled a-nd 
wept and labored to get the people into the king- 
dom! 

The introduction of camp meetings into this 
country and of worshiping God in the groves (God's 
first temples), was a novelty and called out the 
people by the thousands. 

Camp meetings had their origin in Tennessee, in 
1799. Two brothers, named Magee, one a Metho- 
dist, and the other a Presbyterian minister, had the 
high honor of originating them. Jesse Lee intro- 
duced them into Virginia, Maryland and then Dela- 



Streams from Lebanon 259 

ware. The first one in Delaware was in a beautiful 
grove three miles south of Duck Creek Cross Roads 
(now Smyrna) and commenced on July 25, 1805. 
There were multitudes of tents and thousands at- 
tended the feast of tabernacles. 

Thus we see that the modern camp meeting work 
and holiness preaching is but the continuation of 
that glorious work which God's true servants have 
been entrusted with all down the ages. May we 
ever keep the banner flying to the breezes of holi- 
ness unto the Lord and press this battle in the high- 
ways and hedges, the fields and the cities and towns 
until we shall hear His voice "Come enter the joys 
of your Lord." 



THEY ALL BEGAN TO MAKE EXCUSES. 

Excuses come from the devil. The Word says 
that "Every man is without excuse." 

Excuses are like ships at sea without rudder or 
sail, doomed to go down on the rocks of eternal 
despair. How foolish some excuses that some peo- 
ple give. 

The following are some with answers. 

i. "Don't feel like starting." 

You will die some time whether you feel like it 
or not. 

2. "I tried once and failed." 

One thing is certain, if you never try again you 
will be eternally lost. 

3. "I am not afraid to die." 

How do you know you are not, did you ever try 
it? The boy was not afraid of the gun either, but 
it killed him just the same. 

4. "I don't believe in Christ." 

Very well then, don't ever put the date on your 
letter heads again, because from His birth is our 
time reckoned. 

260 



Streams from Lebanon 261 

5. "I believe that everybody will be saved." 
Then why is it you have such a hard time making 

yourself believe it ? 

Such persons are like the man who said that he 
thought everyone would be saved; but that he 
would give the best horse on his place if he only 
knew it. 

6. "There are so many hypocrites." 

The fact there is, means there are genuine saints. 
As well throw the wheat away because there is some 
chaff. A good fan mill will thresh the cheat out. 

Again, if you don't like hypocrites, you had bet- 
ter get saved, for if you don't you will have to live 
jn Hell with them forever. 

7. "Haven't got time." 

You will have plenty of time to die. 

8. "Too many sins to repent of." 

Then I suppose that if you owed a great many 
debts and some one would give you enough money 
to pay them off, you would not want to do it on 
account of there being so many. 

9. "Started once and fell." 

That is like a man falling down on the street and 
never trying to get up again for fear of falling. 

10. "Too much to give up." 



262 Streams from Lebanon 

That would be like Mephibosheth living down in 
Lodebar (Short pasture) and refusing to go up 
with Ziba to the king's palace where he could have 
everything that heart could wish. 

n. "I belong to the church." 

The criminal could possibly ride on the same train 
with good passengers and finally the sheriff take 
him off and cast him in prison. Simply belonging 
to the church will never take you to Heaven. 

12. "Cannot understand the Bible." 

You do not understand the philosophy of masti- 
cated food sustaining natural life: yet if you re- 
fused to eat on that account you would pay the price 
with your life. 

13. "Don't believe in future punishment." 

A man might violate the laws of the country and 
not believe that he would be punished for it, but 
he would just the same. 

14. "Well, but I am honest in my belief." 

So was the woman who took strychnine and 
honestly thought it would not kill her, but it did. 

15. "God is too good to punish His children." 
That is so, but the devil is not too good to punish 

his. And if you don't quit him and get converted 
you will find it out soon. 



Streams from Lebanon 263 

16. "I think I will stand about as good a chance 
to get to Heaven as some of these folks who make 
such a big profession and shout so much." 

Exactly — You may, and go to Hell while you are 
at it. 

17. "I'm not so bad." 

No, and you are not so good either. 
"Ye must be born again." 

18. "I will some time." 

Today is the day and now is the accepted time. 

19. "If I am lost I will be with the biggest 
crowd." 

That won't help you. You will gnaw your tongue 
for pain just the same. 

20. "Any way I do about right." 

About right is always wrong. A man has to do 
about right to keep out of jail with no religion at all. 



ETERNITY IN HELL. 

The clock of time in yonder tower strikes the 
dreadful knell, life is o'er, probation ended, hope 
gone, the white-winged angel of mercy flown for- 
ever. 

Death comes dashing down the road of life on 
his pale horse coming suddenly in view, as if round- 
ing a curve. 

Lost Sinner! He will level his arrow at your 
heart, all red and quivering at the point like an 
adder's tongue as if lapping fire from a distance; 
with his ghastly gaze and bony hands he will seize 
your poor lost soul and drag your immortal Spirit 
into the lake of fire and brimstone, which is the 
second death. 

Once behind the sweltering walls of Hell and 
locked up in its confines forever, you may scream 
and cry for mercy only to be hissed at by countless 
demons with hellish glee. 

In your resurrected hell-doomed body you will 
stagger through hell's dark empire to the farthest 
outposts, gnawing your tongue and blaspheming the 
God of Heaven because of your pains and sores. 

264 



Streams from Lebanon 265 

Shrieking and screaming you will plunge through 
the blackness of darkness forever like a wandering 
star, and like as the imprisoned bird that beats its 
bloody wings against the iron bars seeking liberty, 
so you will be left to foam out your own shame. 

Over the rough, sharp, and rocky ledge you will 
stumble and fall to rise no more. 

And in the bottomless abyss where the billows of 
damnation will slosh under your feet forever, sur- 
rounded by dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers, 
blasphemers and God haters, demonized Spirits and 
fallen Angels, you will wreak out an awful existence 
in hell forever. 

Separated from loved ones, no God, no Savior, 
no comfort, no rest — day nor night — no light, no 
law, no love, no music, hope gone forever, despair 
set in, doom sealed, the object of God's unmitigated 
wrath. Bound and fettered in chains of darkness, 
with despair cut deep in every link, your own 
screams and shrieks will vibrate through that dark 
Spirit world only to re-echo and play back on your 
own lost soul and mock you in your misery. 

Only a holy God knows the retribution that awaits 
a lost soul. O, reader, if you are lost, and on the 
road that leads to death, Hell, and despair, I beg 



266 Streams from Lebanon 

you to turn while it is called today, tomorrow may 
be too late. 

It is Holiness or hell. 

It is either turn or burn. 

Choose you this day whom ye will serve. 

"Don't let it be said, too late, too late, 
For vain will your pleading be ; 
Be ready to enter the Pearly Gate, 
While open it stands for thee. 

Don't let it be said, too late, my friend, 
That thou must forever stand; 
Shut out of the bright Jasper walls for aye, 
Shut out of the Heavenly land." 

How sad it would be to thwart God's plans, 
And forever in hell scream, Too late ! 
Soul withered and blighted, blasted and damned. 
The object of all hell's hate. 



GENUINE VS. SPURIOUS REVIVALS. 

Spurious revivals ignore the Holy Ghost and hate 
His fruits. They do not welcome the preaching of 
the Word "with the Holy Ghost sent down from 
heaven." They are strangers to the sobs and cries 
of penitents, the shouts of new born souls, and the 
manifestations of the fully sanctified. 

Spurious revivals lay stress on methods and rest 
in the means to an end rather than in the end, and 
are led more by man than by the Holy Spirit. 

They are man-made and worked up rather than 
prayed down. They never touch whiskey, tobacco, 
lodges, politics, Sabbath desecration, etc. They are 
not contagious, neither do they last, and withal they 
are not satisfactory. They always relapse into a 
restaurant sideshow, lodge banquet, or social func- 
tion of some sort. There is always something 
wrong with a revival when neither the world nor 
hypocrites oppose. Spurious revivals address al- 
most all their efforts to a feminine group of con- 
cepts and emotions, and the consequence is that at 
present we are top heavy with a lot of soft, sick, 

267 



268 Streams from Lebanon 

sentimental teaching and preaching that is never 
calculated to reach the heart-core of things and 
bring on a genuine revival of quitting all sin and 
straightening up one's life. 

Genuine revivals honor the Holy Ghost, the Word 
of God, the sobs of penitents, the shouts of new- 
born souls, and the praise of the wholly sanctified. 
In them the Word of God is preached without fear 
or favor, sins of the day are laid bare, souls are 
faithfully warned, devils fly and hypocrites oppose. 

A genuine revival strikes for the core of things 
and hits it. It kills and makes alive. When an 
architect builds a house he first erects the walls 
and framework of heavy stone and timber and after 
that comes the decoration. 

Human society is the most peaceable and quiet 
where there is the most recognition of the fact that 
underlying all civilities and courtesies is the iron 
compulsion of law. Strength and beauty every- 
where, but strength first. 

Genuine revivals press home the claims of the 
gospel upon men and do not run to sentiment and 
religious enjoyment. They do not embellish the 
top while the foundation is decaying. They bring 



Streams from Lebanon 269 

to the front principle, self-surrender, crucifixion, 
duty, indomitable will, untemptable loyalty, and 
build on the eternal word of God a church against 
which the gates of hell shall not prevail. 



POINTED PARAGRAPHS. 

If God be for holiness, who are you that you 
should set yourself up against it? 

The eternal question is not "What will I do with 
holiness?" but what will God do with me at the 
judgment without it? 

Since without holiness no man shall see the Lord ; 
looks as if it should have a prominent part in all 
our preaching; does it not? 

The same fight that has been on from the garden 
of Eden is on today: a fight of light against dark- 
ness, of sin against holiness. Reader, which side 
are you on ? 

Brother, your dodging around and finding fault 
with some who have it, will neither help you into 
the experience nor help you when the death rattle 
is in your throat. 

The person who does not want anything to do 
with the second blessing would better read the 17th 
chapter of St. John, and the 5th chapter of 1st 
Thessalonians on their knees, to see whether or not 
they have the first blessing. 

270 



Streams from Lebanon 271 

There never was a time when there were so 
many exponents of the doctrine, so many schools 
teaching it, so many camp meetings and church 
meetings preaching it, and so many people enter- 
ing the experience of holiness as today. 

Bright, positive, clearcut statements with sane 
teaching on the doctrine and experience of entire 
sanctification, will make converts and bring them 
into the experience. 

Brother, if your preaching and teaching on the 
subject of sanctification is mystical and hazy, your 
people will be the same way. 

One reason that more people do not enter the 
experience of entire sanctification is the lack of 
definite testimony on the part of those who profess 
the experience. 

Explicit and express teaching on the doctrine 
and experience of regeneration, will bring people 
into it, and the same is true concerning the doc- 
trine and experience of Sanctification. 

If it is not right to preach and testify to the ex- 
perience of entire sanctification, why is not the 
same true in regard to regeneration? 

Why is the man who preaches both regeneration 



272 Streams from Lebanon 

and sanctification called a hobbiest by the man who 
preaches ONLY regeneration? 

Since a Holy God has sent the Holy Spirit, from 
a holy heaven, to inspire holy men to write a holy 
book, to tell us that without holiness we shall not 
see the Lord, does it not look reasonable that we 
should experience and preach and teach holiness ? 

Holiness becometh Thine House, O Lord, for- 
ever. Reader, if holiness adds glory to the throne 
and habitation to God, do you not think it would 
be a blessing to your heart and home and life? 

The person who does not love holiness here 
would not love it if they were removed to heaven ; 
for the same enemy to holiness they have in their 
breasts here would fight against it there. Then 
the only hope one can have of loving holiness in 
heaven is that they get rid of that, that is in them 
that rejects holiness here. Reader, entire sancti- 
fication will do that, and if you have not already 
done so, go to God and plead for Him to apply the 
blood to your heart, and never rest until He sanc- 
tifies you wholly. 



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